Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

Hi Everyone,

In case you haven't heard, I've been working out of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia for the last week.

Mongolia is one of the world's top 20 countries; as far as size is concerned (2nd largest landlocked country), however it is the most sparsely populated country in the world (with an average of 4 people per square mile). Most of the population lives in the capital, Ulaanbaatar.

According to Wikipedia: The Ancient Mongolian Empire was HUGE! Think Poland to Korea and Siberia to Vietnam. HUGE!

"In the chaos of the late twelfth century, a chieftain named Temüjin finally succeeded in uniting the Mongol tribes between Manchuria and the Altai Mountains. In 1206, he took the title Genghis Khan [Note: the Mongolians call him Chinggis Khaan], and waged a series of military campaigns - renowned for their brutality and ferocity - sweeping through much of Asia, and forming the Mongol Empire, the largest contiguous land empire in world history. Under his successors it stretched from present-day Poland in the west to Korea in the east, and from Siberia in the north to the Gulf of Oman and Vietnam in the south, covering some 33,000,000 km2 (12,741,000 sq mi), (22% of Earth's total land area) and having a population of over 100 million people.

After Genghis Khan's death, the empire had been subdivided into four kingdoms or Khanates which eventually split-up after Möngke's death in 1259. One of the khanates, the "Great Khaanate", consisting of the Mongol homeland and China, became the Yuan Dynasty under Kublai Khan grandson of Genghis Khaan. He set up his capital in present day Beijing but after more than a century of power, the Yuan was replaced by the Ming Dynasty in 1368, with the Mongol court fleeing to the north. As the Ming armies pursued the Mongols into their homeland, they successfully sacked and destroyed the Mongol capital Karakorum among other cities, wiping out the cultural progress that was achieved during the imperial period and thus throwing Mongolia back to anarchy."

Anyway, check out Wikipedia if you want to learn more about Mongolia.

Mongol Empire