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One of the highest countries in the world, Mongolia is a land of harsh extremes - snowy mountains, wide expanses of grassy steppe, and windswept desert. Though vast in area, Mongolia is home to just over three million people, many continuing a nomadic way of life as the country adjusts from Soviet rule to modern conveniences.
 Bactrian camels make their way across dunes in the Gobi desert, a vast expanse between southern Mongolia and northern China. The world's third largest "hot" desert, the Gobi is home to some of Earth's largest dunes, as well as unique wildlife like the endangered Gobi bear.
 A man in western Mongolia wears a fur-trimmed hat as protection from the bitter cold of winter. Sprawled across mountains and plateaus, Mongolia has an average elevation of 5,180 feet (1,580 meters).
 A young boy chases pigeons in the courtyard of a Buddhist monastery and temple in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia's capital. About half of Mongolians are Lamaist, or Tibetan, Buddhists. Minority religions include Islam, Christianity, and Shamanism.
 Here, a boy ropes a Bactrian camel as he and his family prepare to move on from their camp. The only truly wild camels that still exist, these two-humped herbivores are still found in the Gobi desert in Mongolia and China but number less than a thousand.
 A young woman in an elaborate traditional headdress participates in a beauty pageant in Darhan, one of Mongolia's largest cities. Nearly half of all Mongolians live in cities; a third (about one million) live in the capital city of Ulaanbaatar.
 When fall comes to northern Mongolia's Darhad valley, hundreds of families load up their oxen and move their sheep, goats, and cattle over 10,000-foot (3,000-meter) mountains to winter pasture. The twice-yearly trek has shaped nomadic life here for centuries.
 A Mongolian man cycles toward a campsite in the Gobi desert. The felt tents, called gers, are portable, and nomadic herdsmen and their families are able to move quickly according to the weather and the availability of resources like water. On the harsh desert terrain, horses are preferred to bicycles for the daily job of counting and herding animals.
 A woman prepares dozens of traditional meat dumplings called buuz, one of Mongolia's most popular dishes. In a land poorly suited to agriculture, meat and dairy make up a large portion of the diet.
 In the capital, students work together to complete a math lesson. Until 1990 the Soviet Union had Mongolia in a tight lock for more than six decades, imposing bureaucratic strictures on a people who had rarely lived by clock or ledger. But Soviet aid also built schools across Mongolia and brought virtually 100 percent literacy.
 A man in northern Mongolia collects water in the falling snow. Nomadic herdsmen must often cope with the country's extreme climate, including the dzud, a harsh winter that follows a dry summer.
 Young boys race horses at the annual Nadaam festival, a midsummer celebration of nomadic athleticism that also includes wrestling and archery competitions. Hundreds of children, both boys and girls participate as jockeys in the horse racing event.
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