Best Photos Ever Taken (Of Mongolian Ghers) (By Me)

My qualifiers aside, I really do think these are fun photos of Mongolian ghers out on the steppes. Ghers, you ask? Yes, ghers. In Kazakhstan they call them yurts, but yurts and ghers are slightly different in engineering and materials. And ghers are just, cooler.

I stayed in one of these for three nights. It was really warm, and except for the bit of smoke buildup from the flue that was not working so well, it was more comfortable than many a hotel I’ve stayed in. Ghers are also completely portable: the thick layers of felt that form the covering can be taken down and rolled up, and the lattice-like infrastructure collapses down once the major support beams are down. It is quite amazing to see it all done.

The two photos here are of a gher camp in the southern part of the Gobi desert, near the sand dunes and dinosaur fossil site at the Flaming Cliffs. Notice the large goat herds – that is classic Mongolia. They raise goats for food and for the wool, which they turn into fairly decent cashmere (single loop, not double – sorry ladies). The goats are very soft, and quite funny to watch as well, as you can see here.

(All photos are, of course, copyright ACMJ Productions)