Bayanzag Flaming Cliffs

Bayanzag is a low escarpment of red and orange sandstone eroded into gullies and buttresses above a plain of saxaul scrub, and its fame is palaeontological: the American expeditions led by Roy Chapman Andrews worked here in the 1920s and found the first scientifically recognised dinosaur eggs, along with Protoceratops and Velociraptor material. The cliffs were named the Flaming Cliffs for the colour they take at sunset. Fossils continue to erode out of the sediment and are protected; removing them is illegal. The site itself is modest in scale, a walk of an hour or two along the rim and down into the gullies, with the saxaul forest below and views over open desert. Ger camps and a few stalls sit at the top, and it is one of the busiest stops on the southern Gobi circuit.

What you actually see

• Red sandstone gullies - the eroded escarpment that gives the site its name.
• Sunset colour - the light that turns the cliffs orange and red.
• Saxaul forest - the scrub woodland on the plain below.
• Fossil ground - the sediments that produced the 1920s discoveries.

When to go

May to September; late afternoon into sunset is the point of the visit. Midday flattens the colour and the heat is severe. Spring dust storms reduce visibility.

Honest expectations

The cliffs are lower and smaller than the reputation suggests, perhaps thirty metres, and the visit is short. It is the busiest site in the Gobi with tour groups and souvenir stalls. Fossils must not be picked up or bought. Edges are unstable.

Nearby

Khongoryn Els lies southwest; Dalanzadgad is southeast.