In the south stretches the Gobi Desert from Gobi-Altay County to beyond the area into Inner Mongolia in northeastern China(10). The southeast end of the Altay Mountains penetrates into the desert, ending in Bajanhongor county. Further north the Zavhan Hangajn Mountains parallel the Altay in Zavhan County and along the Arhangaj-Bajanhongor border. This range tops out at over 4000 meters at Otgon Tengler Mountain, Zavhan County.
Hovsgol County is named for the great fresh water lake in its north center. Northwestern Hovsgol is drained by the headwaters of the Lesser Yenisey or Kyzyl Kem River(11). Eastern and southern Hovsgol and much of north central Mongolia by the Selenga (Selenge) River system--another headwater of the Yenisey. The low Hentij Mountains northeast of the capital mark the continental divide between the Arctic and Pacific watersheds. Northeast Mongolia is drained by the Shilka and Ergun (Argun') headwaters--both feed the Amur.
The south side of the Zavhan Hangajn Mountains is drained by the Zavhan River which flows northwest out ot the area, into Uvs.
Besides Hovsgol there are salt lakes in Bajanhongor County and a large fresh lake in eastern Dornod, along the Chinese boundary.
Almost everyone--about two and a half million people--speaks a dialect(12) of Mongolian and practices Lamist Buddhism.
There are no cities with a million people, but the capital, Ulaanbaatar has over half a million. The city was named Urga until the communists conquered Mongolia, and until then, and now presumably again, it is the center of the Lamist religion for the Mongols.
The Altay had the a succession of Turkic groups(13): Juan Juan, Turk, Uighur and Kyrgyz(14). Before them the Altay is said to be the home of all Altaic groups: Turkic, Mongolian and Tungusic. Turkic and Mongol peoples at first worshipped Tangri, the sky, with annual sacrifices, and with other sacrifices in an 'ancestral cavern' honoring metallurgy. The Uighurs introduced state Manichaeism--followers of the Persian Prophet, Mani. Nestorian Christianity spread along the south side of the Zavhan Hangajn mountains, but it is gone today, as is Manichaeism and the Islam of the Kyrgyz. But indiginous shamanism persists even after the introduction of Lamism, which the Mongols adopted from the Tibetans they conquered.
northwest of Hovsgol and north of Zavhan counties
north of Hovsgol, Bulgan, Selenge, Hentij and Dornod counties
east, and south of Mongolia east of Gobi-Altay county
south of Gobi-Altaj county
southwest of Gobi-Altay county
west
(1) Formally Mongol Ard Uls.
(2) Also spelled Govi.
(3) Also spelled Altaj.
(4) Also spelled Dzavhan.
(5) Also spelled Arhangay.
(6) Also spelled Bayan-Hongor.
(7) Also spelled Hentiy.
(8) Also spelled Orhon.
(9) Translates as Red Valiant Warrior.
(10) Transliterates alternatively from the Chinese as Zhongguo or Chung-hua. Translates as the Middle Kingdom or Middle Land.
(11) The Kyyzl Khem or Chem is locally known as the Shishhid. It does not become the Lesser Yenisey until it is joined by the Balytyg Khem (Chem) in Russia.
(12) Some regard some dialects as separate languages.
(13) Many of them eventually moved southwest into Chinese Turkestan.
(14) Called Kalmuks or Kalmyks in the 16th century.