Ulaamgom

Ulaangom, the “red valley”, lies on the slopes of Mount Kharkhiraa southwest of Uvs Nuur. The nearby lake fills an enclosed basin and has highly saline water, while the mountains rise above its dry shores. The valley experiences severe winters and brief warm summers; cold air can collect on the basin floor, making it colder than the mountain slopes above. Ulaangom is believed to have been founded in 1686, and evidence records grain cultivation in the surrounding area in the late seventeenth century. Fields and settlement thus existed beside the pastoral life of western Mongolia, in a basin whose watercourses run towards the great salt lake rather than the sea.