Altai Mountains, Mongolia
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Hunting with eagles on horseback is a practice present in a area of Mongolia that cleaves near Russia, China and Kazakhstan. This is the Altai Mountains, an untamed, unforgiving unfolding of huge, high-altitude wilderness wealthy in glacial peaks, open steppe and river-carved valleys. Snow leopards prowl distant ridge strains whereas the eagle hunters keep a centuries-old bond with golden eagles beneath.
Once traversed by Genghis Khan, this can be a focus of Scythian-Turkic tradition, whose arid slopes someway maintain nomadic life that calls for fixed attentiveness to the atmosphere. Low-impact trekking and homestays provide uncommon entry to a area the place human presence nonetheless bends to nature’s phrases.
If you’re ready to transcend the finish of the asphalt ribbon, and also you don’t thoughts the occasional yak or grazing horse as your solely firm for numerous miles round, the Altai delivers the closest factor a modern-day traveller may expertise to embarking upon the historical Silk Route, geared up solely with a tent and sustained solely by mutton dinners and cups of the native salty, buttery tea.