Ulaanbaatar

(2000 est. pop. 774,000). Ulaanbaatar (also Ulan Bator, Urga, Niislel Huree), situated at an altitude of 1,350 meters in central Mongolia, is the capital of the Mongolian People's Republic and is the country's largest city. Mountains, including the prominent Bogd Uul Ridge (2,200 meters), surround the city, which lies in a long valley of the Tuul River.

The city began in 1639 as the itinerant court of an influential Mongolian prince. Over decades it gradually became a religious and political center for the region, and in the eighteenth century the court settled permanently on the current site of Ulaanbaatar. From this place, the bogdo-gegen, Mongolian Buddhism's highest lama, exercised religious and political authority across large areas of modern-day Mongolia. By 1900, as many as twenty thousand lamas were conducting services at more than one hundred temples inthe city. In addition the city was home to six hundred foreign firms and several thousand merchants and craftsmen and prospered from trade between Russia and China.

Ulaanbaatar in 1983, while still under Soviet rule. The high-rises on the outskirts of the city were occupied by Russians and Eastern Europeans and contrast with the more traditional architecture of buildings in the foreground of the photo. (DEAN CONGER/CORBIS)

The first half of the twentieth century was a turbulent time for the city. In 1911, when Outer Mongolia declared independence from China, the city was renamed Niislel Huree ("national capital"). During the following decade, it was variously occupied by Chinese and White Russian troops, and in 1921 a Mongolian militia commanded by Damdiny Suhbaatar captured the city with the aid of the Soviet Red Army. In 1924 leaders of the country's Communist revolution renamed the town Ulaanbaatar, which means "red hero." With Soviet aid, the city built museums, theaters, and several institutions of higher learning, including the National University of Mongolia. To accommodate the fast-growing population, block apartments replaced the traditional Mongolian ger (felt tent) and public transportation replaced horses. In 2000 the city produced more than 50 percent of the country's industrial output. Its architecture is an eclectic combination of Soviet-style block apartments, neoclassical public buildings, Tibetan Buddhist temples, and traditional gers. The Trans-Mongolian Railway and an international airport connect the capital to both Beijing and Moscow, and it is the political, cultural, and social center of the Mongolian People's Republic.

Bawden, Charles R. (1968) The Modern History of Mongolia.

London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.