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Kharkhorin, Mongolia: Gilded Buddhas and prayer flags inside Erdene Zuu monastery

Kharkhorin, once Karakorum, capital of the Mongol Empire: temples and a gilded Buddha at Erdene Zuu monastery, plus a picnic on the Orkhon steppe.

Kharkhorin doesn't look like a former capital of the largest land empire in history, and that's rather the point. Genghis Khan's Karakorum rose and fell here on the Orkhon steppe, and in May 2024 we drove west from Ulaanbaatar to see what remains.

The drive west

Getting there's half the story: hours of open grassland in every direction, and a lunch stop wherever the view looks best, which is everywhere.

Dileep and Inga picnicking on a patterned blanket on the open steppe east of Kharkhorin, their guide setting out tea while cattle graze behind
Lunch stop on the steppe just east of Kharkhorin: a blanket, a thermos of tea, and cows for company. Shoes off, obviously.

Erdene Zuu monastery

What survives of Karakorum is mostly here, inside the walls of Erdene Zuu, Mongolia's oldest surviving Buddhist monastery, built in part from the stones of the ruined capital. Beyond the wall it's all lawn, sky and temple roofs.

Dileep and Inga standing together on the grounds of Erdene Zuu monastery, Chinese-style temple roofs and white walls behind them under a big blue sky
Inside the Erdene Zuu grounds in May 2024. Most of the compound is open space now; the temples that survived stand in a cluster behind us.
Gilded seated Buddha statue with blue hair and yellow silk robes inside a temple at Erdene Zuu, framed by an ornate golden halo and painted murals
Inside one of the temple halls: a gilded Buddha in yellow silk, ringed by a carved golden halo, with cases of small offering statues either side.
Large embroidered silk thangka of a wrathful protector deity, displayed behind glass at Erdene Zuu Monastery in Kharkhorin
An embroidered silk thangka of a protector deity, every skull and flame stitched by hand.
Dileep walking a stone path towards a white Tibetan-style temple at Erdene Zuu, strings of prayer flags overhead and gilded ornaments on the roofline
Strings of prayer flags lead the way to the white Tibetan-style temple. Dileep, camera in hand, walked every path in the compound.

Erdene Zuu is the survivor that makes the trip. Pair the history with the drive itself, and a night in a ger on the steppe on the way.