UNESCO World Heritage for Mongolia

UNESCO World Heritage Sites represent some of the best natural, cultural and historic attractions in world travel. Below are details of the 4 cultural, natural and mixed sites inscribed for Mongolia to date (a red World Heritage symbol denotes a site currently regarded as endangered). For more details of these properties, click on the links to the UNESCO website and the photographic galleries of these sites from OurPlace (where available) or see our highlights of Mongolia for descriptions. Also, check out UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage for Mongolia below.


2003 - Uvs Nuur Basin Natural site
2004 - Orkhon Valley Cultural Landscape Cultural site
2011 - Petroglyphic Complexes of the Mongolian Altai Cultural site
2015 - Great Burkhan Khaldun Mountain and its surrounding sacred landscape Cultural site


Intangible Cultural Heritage

Recently UNESCO has begun to document the world's Intangible Cultural Heritage which includes "traditions or living expressions inherited from our ancestors and passed on to our descendants, such as oral traditions, performing arts, social practices, rituals, festive events, knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe or the knowledge and skills to produce traditional crafts". The current listings for Mongolia are shown below - click on the links for more details.


Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity

2008 - Traditional music of the Morin Khuur
2008 - Urtiin Duu, traditional folk long song
2010 - Mongolian traditional art of Khöömei
2010 - Naadam, Mongolian traditional festival
2012 - Falconry, a living human heritage

List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding

2009 - Mongol Tuuli, Mongolian epic
2009 - Mongol Biyelgee, Mongolian traditional folk dance
2009 - Traditional music of the Tsuur
2011 - Folk long song performance technique of Limbe performances - circular breathing