Erdene Zuu monastery + Kharkhorin

Saturday 2nd July

It was raining lightly and we didn't really stop on our way to Erdene Zuu.

Erdene Zuu is the "head monastery" of Mongolia. It's a huge compound — a square nearly half a kilometre a side, surrounded by a wall topped with stupas — but it's now mostly empty, with only a few scattered temples remaining. Most were destroyed in 1937.

It was an overcast and gloomy day, not so good for photography.

We looked at three buildings, in one of which monks were praying and eating — and in one case answering a mobile phone.

Having visited the monastery, we didn't stop to look at the modern town of Kharkhorin, but drove off to see a "phallic rock". This is just a half metre long stone penis — accompanied by vendors with tables of souvenirs, wrapped up against the drizzle in plastic which was whipped off when we arrived. The slope behind the rock, where there's a crease in the ground decorated with some low vegetation, is apparently known as "vagina slope".

More appealing was a stone turtle which is one of the surviving cornerstones of the old city of Kharkhorin — again, with tables of souvenirs.

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