Uvs Lake

Uvs Nuur is the largest lake in Mongolia by surface area, shallow, intensely saline and with no outflow, a remnant of a far bigger body of water. Its World Heritage listing covers not just the lake but the whole basin, which is unusual for holding within one closed system the full range of Central Asian environments: sand dunes, desert steppe, grassland, wetland, taiga forest, tundra and glaciated mountains, stacked from the lake shore to the peaks. That compression makes it a research site of long standing, and the basin records some of the widest temperature swings on earth, from around forty below in winter to the high thirties in summer. Birds use the lake heavily on migration, and the shores hold gulls, cormorants and waders. The water is too saline to drink or to support fish in most of the lake.

What you actually see

• The saline lake - a huge shallow sheet with white salt margins.
• The basin range - dunes, steppe, forest and mountains within one system.
• Migrating birds - gulls, cormorants and waders on the shores.
• Extreme climate - the temperature range the basin is known for.

When to go

June to September; the lake freezes solid in winter and access is difficult. Migration periods in spring and autumn bring the most birds. Summer brings heat, mosquitoes and biting flies near the water.

Honest expectations

There is very little infrastructure: rough tracks, a few ger camps, and no facilities on most of the shore. The lake is too saline for swimming to be pleasant and there are no beaches in the usual sense. Mosquitoes are severe in summer. Distances in the basin are large.

Nearby

Ulaangom is south; the Kharkhiraa and Turgen mountains rise southwest.