Mongolia

The first Buddhist monastery in Mongolia, founded in 1586 by Abtai Sain Khan and now a working monastery surrounded by 108 white stupas, standing in the ancient capital of Karakorum.

Red sandstone cliffs in the Gobi Desert near the village of Bayanzag, named by Roy Chapman Andrews in 1922 for the way the orange-red rock seems to burn in low sunlight, and famous for the first dinosaur eggs ever found.

A 40-metre bronze equestrian statue of Genghis Khan at Tsonjin Boldog, inaugurated in 2008, marking the 800th anniversary of the Mongol Empire and commanding sweeping views of the surrounding steppe.

A deep freshwater lake in the mountainous north of Mongolia, holding nearly 2% of the world's surface freshwater and ringed by pine forest, alpine meadows and the Sayan Mountains, known as the Blue Pearl of Mongolia.

A UNESCO World Heritage Site in central Mongolia encompassing the Orkhon River valley, one of the most historically significant landscapes in the country, associated with the ancient Turkic Khaganate and the site of Karakorum, the 13th-century capital of the Mongol Empire.

A protected area in the Khentii Mountains north-east of Ulaanbaatar, celebrated for its granite rock formations, alpine meadows and the iconic Turtle Rock, with Buddhist monuments and ger camps scattered through the landscape.