WAY online magazine, issue no.3 . . It is better to be born a bull in the mountains of Khangai , than a man in the Gobi Desert , says a popular Mongolian expression about the hardships of living in the desert.
Winds never abate here.
Strong winds and storms carry sand across thousands of kilometers. Temperature changes drastically within a fortnight, sometimes from plus 30 in the day time to minus 10 at night. However, for over half a century, access to the riches of the Gobi Desert was only allowed to Soviet scholars. When Mongolia finally opened its borders to the outside world, after the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1990, American and Japanese explorers were the first to arrive. The harsh climate and remoteness of the desert have naturally conserved the relics of prehistoric life, and the discoveries found here are shedding light on the life of millions of strange creatures that used to roam up to 165 million years ago.