[Roy Chapman] Andrews is best remembered for the series of
dramatic expeditions he led to the
Gobi of Mongolia (shorter films:
1,
2) from 1922 to 1930. Andrews took a team of scientists into previously unexplored parts of the desert using some of the region’s first automobiles with extra supplies transported by camel caravan.
Andrews – for whom
adventure and narrow escapes from death were a staple of exploring – is said to have served as inspiration for the Hollywood character “
Indiana Jones.”
Andrews’s expeditions to the Gobi remain significant for, among other discoveries, their finds of the first nests of dinosaur eggs, new species of dinosaurs, and the fossils of early mammals that co-existed with dinosaurs.
[more inside]
posted by ersatz
on Feb 17, 2013 -
8 comments
"Experience the roadlessness, the bandits, the breakdowns, the yaks, and the camels, without ever having to figure out how to steer and shift a right-driving mini-car through some of the remotest land on the planet. And see it out the windshield just like we did."
Drive across Mongolia in four minutes. [via]
posted by quin
on Feb 28, 2012 -
6 comments
Chinese archeologists
have mapped the layout of
Shangdu (
better known as Xanadu),
after large scale
excavations that
included the use of
GIS in remote sensing and aerial archeology. The capital,
located in
Inner Mongolia, was built in 1256
under the command of
Kublai Khan, the first emperor of
Yuan Dynasty, who was
enthroned there four years later.
It became a summer resort after the
Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) moved its
capital to Ta-tu or
Dadu (
built by the
same architect,
located in present-day
Beijing) in 1276, and was destroyed during
a peasant war at the end of
the dynasty. The regional government has submitted an application for
World Cultural Heritage status
for the site to UNESCO,
currently under review.
Xanadu has
captured the imagination of the
West ever since Marco Polo first
extolled its beauties
in his Books of the Marvels of the World,
subsequently immortalized by Coleridge in
a poem fuelled
by opium fevered dreams.
Other recently discovered
Yuan Dynasty artifacts include
a priceless porcelain vase as well as
a sunken ship - part of an
invading Mongol armada - off the coast
of Japan.
posted by infini
on Dec 3, 2011 -
24 comments
in 1976, surrealist icon Salvador Dali starred and directed in the fake documentary/travelogue Impressions de la haute Mongolie - Impressions of Upper Mongolia - about his quest to find a rare hallucinogenic mushroom. It was intended as a tribute to the late
Raymond Roussel. It is available on Youtube in 5 parts.
1 -
2 -
3 -
4 -
5 (70 min)
posted by The Whelk
on Sep 3, 2011 -
25 comments
The
Guardian and
Time write about the rise of neo-Nazi groups in Mongolia.
The view (or at least a view) from Ulan Bator. Pertinent images from the Guardian and from Time's photographer
here and
here respectively.
posted by Dim Siawns
on Aug 3, 2010 -
24 comments
In Mongolia, overtone singing (or hoomei, as it's known locally) is mainly a guy thing, but there are exceptions to the rule, for example, the
Hoomei Women's Group. More commonly though, women who want to sing do so in an exquisite, soaring style like
this and
this. Sometimes the men do the hoomei thing while the women do that
soaring thing. Then there are those lovely
choral arrangements. And then there are those rare moments when the YouTube poster's description of a clip just hits the nail square on the head, as with this one:
amazing.
[more inside]
posted by flapjax at midnite
on Feb 29, 2008 -
23 comments
9000 miles by ferry, train, bus, bicycle, horse, foot and car. In a bid to
reduce his carbon footprint, Joseph Tame swapped 11 hours in a plane from Japan to England for a month-long adventure across Eurasia. Along the way he has a
Chinese Imperial Guard hold a penguin, stays in a
Mongolian Yurt, experiences a
"road" trip or
two,
misses some
trains, and
befriends a chipmunk.
posted by Freaky
on Oct 15, 2007 -
25 comments
The Shanhai Cooperative Organization. [wiki] When Moscow and Beijing engineered the creation of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) six years ago, I am not sure if they foresaw its emergence as an important actor in the international order. Iran, India, Pakistan and Mongolia, currently observers, are lobbying hard to get accepted into this club. The US request for membership was rejected two years ago.
posted by delmoi
on Aug 23, 2007 -
14 comments
An American in Mongolia. A new breed of American soldier—call him the soldier-diplomat—has come into being since the end of the Cold War. Meet the colonel who was our man in Mongolia, an officer who probably wielded more local influence than many Mongol rulers of yore.
posted by kablam
on Feb 20, 2004 -
7 comments
Jorlon khaan bain ve? The first stop in Oissubke's trip around the online world is the
beautiful land of
Mongolia. Take a moment to leave the America-centric (not that there's anything wrong with that!) Web and see what the internet looks like from someone else's eyes...
I've tried to pick sites that provide unique and interesting insights into the Mongolian internet, not just whatever Google coughed up for "Mongolia". Unless this post particularly annoys people, I'll plan to continue my journey with Liechtenstein in a few days.
posted by oissubke
on Oct 21, 2002 -
28 comments
