Travel to Altai Tavan Bogd National Park

Altai Tavan Bogd National Park occupies the far northwestern corner of Mongolia, where the borders of Russia and China converge at a single point high in the Altai Mountains. Established in 1996, this 6,362-square-kilometer protected area encompasses the highest peaks in Mongolia, including Khüiten Peak at 4,374 meters—the country’s roof. The name “Tavan Bogd” means “Five Holy Peaks,” referring to the five sacred summits that rise above the Potanin Glacier: Khüiten (“Cold Peak”), Nairamdal (“Friendship”), Malchin (“Herder”), Bürged (“Eagle”), and Ölgii (“Motherland”).

The park protects an extraordinary range of landscapes, from permanently glaciated peaks to alpine meadows, from dense larch forests to crystal-clear lakes. Three major freshwater lakes—Khoton, Khurgan, and Dayan—fill glacier-carved basins and form the headwaters of the Khovd River. The park contains 34 glaciers in total, with the Potanin Glacier stretching 14 kilometers as Mongolia’s longest. This is one of the most biodiverse regions in Central Asia, home to snow leopards, Altai argali (the world’s largest wild sheep), Siberian ibex, gray wolves, and golden eagles—the latter revered by the Kazakh people who have made this region their home for centuries.

The Kazakh people of Bayan-Ölgii Province are ethnically and culturally distinct from their Mongol neighbors. These semi-nomadic herders, numbering around 100,000 in western Mongolia, practice Sunni Islam, speak Kazakh (a Turkic language), and maintain traditions their ancestors brought when fleeing Russian collectivization in the early 20th century. Most famously, they preserve the ancient art of hunting with golden eagles—a practice dating back over 4,000 years that UNESCO inscribed as Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2010.

Today, approximately 250-300 berkutchi (eagle hunters) continue this demanding tradition in the Altai Mountains. They capture young female golden eagles—prized for their larger size and fiercer hunting instinct—from nests high in the peaks, then spend months building a bond of trust through careful training. The hunting season runs from November through February, when hunters ride across the frozen steppe with eagles weighing up to six kilograms perched on their arms, pursuing fox and hare whose winter pelts provide valuable fur. After 7-10 years of partnership, the eagles are released back to the wild to breed—an act of respect that ensures the tradition’s continuation. Each October, the Golden Eagle Festival in Ölgii draws berkutchi from across the region to compete in demonstrations of skill and celebrate this remarkable living heritage.

Within Altai Tavan Bogd National Park lies one of the most significant archaeological treasures in Central Asia: the Petroglyphic Complexes of the Mongolian Altai, inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2011. Spanning three locations—Tsagaan Salaa-Baga Oigor, Upper Tsagaan Gol (Shiveet Khairkhan), and Aral Tolgoi—these rock art sites contain thousands of images documenting 12,000 years of human history in this remote corner of the world.

The earliest petroglyphs date from the late Ice Age (11,000-6,000 BCE), when this region was partly forested and populated by now-extinct megafauna. Ancient artists carved images of mammoths, woolly rhinoceros, and ostriches into the polished glacial bedrock—animals that vanished as the climate warmed. Later images from the Bronze Age (4,000-2,800 BCE) show the transition to herding, with depictions of domestic cattle and sheep. The most recent carvings, from the Scythian period and later Turkic era (1st millennium BCE to 8th century CE), document horse-dependent nomadism with dramatic hunting scenes, mounted warriors, and ceremonial figures. Near Shiveet Khairkhan Mountain alone, approximately 10,000 petroglyphs and numerous Turkic stone statues stand as silent witnesses to the cultures that thrived here long before written history.