THE GOBI

The southern third of Mongolia is dominated by the fabled Gobi. This arid region has been the site for the famous paleontological expeditions by the American Museum of Natural History of the 1920s and (in cooperation with the Mongolian Academy of Science) since 1990. The southernmost portion of the Gobi is a true desert where there might be no precipitation at all during any given year. Not surprisingly, this bone-dry region is one of the most sparsely inhabited stretches of Eurasia. Further north and northeast, increasing rainfall supports marginal grasslands known as desert steppes. Here, pastoralists herd sheep, goats, horses, cows, yaks and bactrian (two-humped) camels.