Tag archives for Mongolia
Save the Saiga: Poachers Responsible for a Dwindling Population
Posted by Nicole Glass on February 22, 2013 
The grasslands of Russia and Kazakhstan are host to an animal that has roamed the earth since the Ice Age, but may soon become extinct: the saiga, a hump-nosed antelope whose population has declined by more than 95 percent since the early 1990s. The critically endangered saiga, which stands just about two feet tall, is in…
How the Search for Genghis Khan Helped the United Nations Map Refugees in Somalia
Posted by Patrick Meier of National Geographic Emerging Explorers in Explorers Journal on July 23, 2012 
National Geographic has been exploring new worlds for well over a hundred years. In the present century, these new worlds include digital worlds—the next frontier of exploration. Take National Geographic’s recent digital expedition in Mongolia. The “Valley of the Khans Project” represents a new approach to archeology that gives us each the opportunity to be a digital Indiana Jones by searching for the tomb of Genghis Khan using the World Wide Web. The very same technologies can also turn us into digital humanitarians in support of the United Nations (UN). Here’s a story about how National Geographic’s digital expedition in Mongolia inspired the UN during their humanitarian response operations in Somalia.
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It may seem strange to suggest that the motivation behind our global economies, conflicts, cultures, and politics can be summed up within the mindset of the herdsman on the grassy steppe. But then again, the largest contiguous empire in human history was created by one of those nomads, and his name was Chinggis (Genghis) Khan.
“Valley of the Khans” Experts Meet in D.C.
Posted by Andrew Howley of NG Staff on February 28, 2012 
Two of the world’s greatest scholars of Mongol history joined their collaborators NG Emerging Explorer Albert Lin and NG Archaeology Fellow Fred Hiebert in Washington, D.C. last week to discuss their findings on the cutting-edge Valley of the Khans archaeology project.
Return to the Valley of the Khans
Posted by Andrew Howley of NG Staff on July 12, 2011 
NG Emerging Explorer Albert Lin and team head back to Mongolia on a high-tech search for the tomb of Genghis Khan, using ground-penetrating radar, aerial drones, and satellite images that you can help search for clues.
Rains that Don’t Wet
Posted by Daniel Grossman of Environmental Journalist, News Watch Contributing Editor on July 12, 2011 Hatgal, Mongolia If you visit a Mongolian ger, be prepared for a few things. First, you’ll be served a thin-walled bowl of weak tea. Sometimes it tastes salty. Sometimes the surface glistens with a few spots of fat that’ll coat your lips. It’s always served with milk—yak, cow or camel—and never with sugar. A ger,…
Three National Geographic Explorers–Albert Yu-Min Lin, Sandra Postel, and Roshini Thinakaran–joined a lineup of more than two dozen speakers on the theme “What If?” at today’s TEDxMidAtlantic event in Washington, D.C. In case you weren’t in the audience at Sidney Harman Hall or glued to your laptop watching the live stream, here’s some of what…
Help Wanted: Satellite Archaeologist
Posted by Ford Cochran on July 27, 2010 National Geographic Emerging Explorer Albert Lin, Fellow Fredrik Hiebert, Young Explorer Ben Horton, and several colleagues have traveled to Mongolia, where they’re documenting archaeological sites in one of central Asia’s most remote and least explored valleys with guidance from an essential team member: You. Field Expedition: Mongolia uses high-resolution satellite imagery from GeoEye and the…
Posted by By James Sawyer Imagine trying to survive in temperatures below minus 50 degrees F (minus 47 degrees C) for more than a month. It happened in Mongolia this winter–weather so cold that livestock and other animals were dying painfully at a rate of a quarter of a million deaths every week, resulting in the loss…
NG Weekend: Ethiopia’s Omo Valley
Posted by Ford Cochran on February 27, 2010 This week on National Geographic Weekend radio, host Boyd Matson speaks with guests about Ethiopia’s Omo Valley, tree kangaroos, environmentally responsible travel, killing vampires, Japanese gardens, biogas digesters, prison choirs, the freshwater crisis, finding your inner nomad in Mongolia, and National Geographic Explorer‘s 25th anniversary. Hour 1 Ethiopia’s Omo Valley is a place still ruled…
Frontiers of Exploration
Posted by Ford Cochran on June 13, 2009 More highlights from the 2009 Explorers Symposium: NGS/Waitt Grant recipient Albert Lin described the source of his passion for exploration and culture, spending “every penny I had” exploring the world’s cultural heritage, and his new commitment to protect a region in Mongolia that has been held sacred for eight centuries. Committee for Research and Exploration…
