Mongolian Geography

Location: Mongolia is the world’s second largest landlocked country in the North-East Asia bordering China with 4.673 km in the south and Russian Federation with 3485 km in the north.

Territory: The total territory of the country is 1.566 million square kilometers making approximately 1 square kilometers per 1.6 persons.  It is the 6th largest country in Asia and the 18th largest in the world.

Geography: Mongolia encompasses a wide range of terrain, with mountains, grassy steppes, and vast flat desert. Most of the north and west of the country is mountainous or hilly grasslands; the Gobi Desert takes up most of the south and the east. The country is land-locked, and although there are lakes and streams in certain areas, the combination of the terrain and low water supply means that a very small percent of the land is arable.
About 90 percent of this landlocked country is covered by deserts or pastures with extreme climatic conditions; this desert area is the largest temperate grassland habitat. Grass land and shrubland covers 55 percent of the country, forest covers only 6 percent in the steppe zone, 36 percent is covered by desert vegetation, and only 1 percent is used for human habitation and agricultural purposes, such as growing crops. The floral vegetation in the Eastern Steppe temperate consists of grassland (the largest of its type in the world).
Mongolia has approximately 3,000 rivers with a combined length of approximately 67,000 kilometers, over 3,000 lakes, 6,900 springs, 190 glaciers and 250 mineral water springs.

Climate: Dry continental climate with desert, steppe and mountain   zones with large daily and seasonal temperature ranges. Mongolia’s average annual rainfall, measures between 200 to 220 millimeters and it has approximately 250 cloudless days each year, earning it the nickname “country of blue sky.”

Major natural resources:  Copper, coal, iron ore, gold, silver, fluorspar, uranium, tin, tungsten, oil and rare earth elements.