In Search of Marco Polo’s Mongolia
By C. McCarthy
Staff Reporter
BAYAN-OLGII, Mongolia ― Marco Polo wrote of Western Mongolia as a land “barren of hope in spite of its existence.” It is here among the crimson colors of the Central Asian plateau that the Altai Nuruu mountain range climbs into the heavens and the echoes of the Genghis Khan Empire can still be heard. In the poetic undertones of this landscape time is lost and life is as it has always been. Wild horses graze the steppes’ slender grasses, fermented mare’s milk is drunk amongst friends, and the Nomadic lifestyle answers only to the seasons.
Wedged in between China and Russia, Mongolia is a self-governing republic in the heart of the Central Asian plateau. Genghis Khan brought the land to the height of its power in the 13th century. But, today it is in many ways a land still living in the past. It is in this isolated country where the Kazakh people have kept their ancient culture almost completely intact, after being expelled from Russia two hundred years ago. To this day, they carry on the 2000-year-old tradition of hunting on horseback with majestic Golden Eagles.