Ovorkhangai
Karakorum stood here—Mongol Empire capital 1235-1260, when this was the world's center. Orkhon Valley UNESCO site since 2004. Erdene Zuu monastery, Mongolia's first Buddhist temple. Where empires chose to rule.
For a brief moment in the 13th century, Ovorkhangai was the center of the world. Karakorum, capital of the Mongol Empire from 1235 to 1260, rose in the Orkhon Valley where this province meets neighboring Arkhangai. From here, the khans administered an empire stretching from Korea to Poland. Ambassadors from the Pope, the Caliph, and the Song Emperor all made the journey to this remote steppe city, now reduced to archaeological traces near the modern town of Kharkhorin.
The location was not random. The Orkhon Valley had served empires before: the Xiongnu, the Göktürks, the Uyghurs all centered power here. The Khangai Mountains to the north provided protection and timber; the valley itself offered the grassland to feed the horse herds that made conquest possible. When Ögedei Khan chose this site, he was following a pattern established across millennia.
UNESCO inscribed the Orkhon Valley Cultural Landscape in 2004—121,967 hectares of grassland preserving 2,000 years of nomadic heritage. The Erdene Zuu monastery, Mongolia's first Buddhist monastery founded in 1585, incorporates stones from ruined Karakorum. Communist authorities partially destroyed it in the 1930s; what remains stands as Mongolia's most important religious site.
Ovorkhangai today blends history with pastoralism. The economy remains largely herding—the same grassland logic that supported empires now supports families with mixed herds of sheep, goats, cattle, and horses. By 2026, heritage tourism will continue growing, but the province's significance lies in what it was: the administrative center of history's largest contiguous empire.