Khövsgöl Lake

Khövsgöl is a rift lake, formed by the same forces that opened Lake Baikal about 200 kilometres to the north-east. It is 136 kilometres long, up to 36.5 kilometres wide and 262 metres deep at its deepest point, and its surface sits at about 1,645 metres. It holds roughly 380 cubic kilometres of water, close to 70 percent of Mongolia's fresh water and about 0.4 percent of the world's. Dozens of short rivers and streams feed it, but only one leaves: the Eg, which joins the Selenge and reaches Baikal after a journey of more than 1,000 kilometres.

Scientists count Khövsgöl among the world's ancient lakes, several million years old. Its water is very low in nutrients and exceptionally clear, and it supports life found nowhere else, including the Hovsgol grayling, a flightless caddisfly and a small rolling green alga. Lenok, perch and burbot also live here. The lake freezes from late November, and the ice, often a metre or more thick, usually lasts into May.

Khövsgöl Lake National Park was created in 1992 and enlarged in 2011 to about 11,800 square kilometres, taking in the lake and the mountains around it. Next door, the Khoridol Saridag Strictly Protected Area shelters Mongolia's northernmost argali. The park sits where Siberian taiga meets Central Asian steppe, a mix that supports ibex, elk, moose, musk deer, brown bear, wolverine and sable, along with more than 200 recorded bird species. In 2022 UNESCO added the area to its World Network of Biosphere Reserves.

Protection has not removed the pressures. Ger camps have spread along the western shore north of Khatgal, and a 2014 study found more microplastic particles in the open lake than in the far more developed Lakes Huron and Superior. Sanitation projects backed by the Asian Development Bank are working to replace open pit toilets and dumps around Khatgal and Khankh, and a 2015 study found illegal gillnet fishing widespread during the spring spawning run of the endemic grayling. Travellers can help simply: use camp toilets, carry rubbish out and keep soap out of the water.

Khalkh and Buryat herders live around the lake, moving yaks, horses and sheep between summer pastures and sheltered winter valleys, while Darkhad communities occupy the broad valley beyond the Khoridol Saridag. Shamanic traditions remain strong in the region and feature at the winter Ice Festival. Further west, in the taiga beyond the Darkhad Valley, a few dozen Dukha families herd reindeer. Visits are arranged through community-based tourism with payment going to the families, and travellers should never arrive unannounced, avoid the spring calving season and ask before photographing anyone.

The region's human history reaches back three thousand years. At Uushigiin Övör, 18 kilometres west of Mörön, around 30 carved deer stones stand among burial mounds dating from roughly 1200 to 600 BCE, one bearing a rare human face. The site is part of the Deer Stone Monuments inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2023.