Gurvansaikhan National Park
The Gurvan Saikhan National Park lies on the northern edge of the Gobi Desert and was established in 1993 to conserve and protect the ecosystems of the Gobi region. It covers five million acres and extends 400 km (250 miles) east to west and 80 km (50 miles) north to south. The Park has beautiful gorges, mountains, spectacular sand dunes, and a variety of artifacts including dinosaur fossils. Many of the valleys, ridges and mountains of the Gurvansaikhan National Park are part of the eastern end of the Altai Mountain Range, which is located in western Mongolia and extends from northwestern Mongolia in a southern direction for 1200 km (750 miles).
The Park was named for the Gurvan Saikhan Mountains, which means “Three Beauty Mountains” and consists of three ridges – Western Beauty, Middle Beauty and Eastern Beauty. According to the folk legend, there was once a rich man with three beautiful daughters who were intent upon marrying three poor herdsmen. The girls’ father forbade them to marry the men of their choice, and in their terrible sadness, they ran away into the desert, where they remain to this day as the three ridges called The Three Beauties. Besides these three ridges, the National Park also includes a series of ranges stretching further south and across its entire length called Zoolon, Sevrei and Nemegt.