It has some more records to offer: the driest and hottest province (only minus 10 - 15 degrees C in winter!). The biggest comprising half the size as Germany or Poland and as big as Florida or Wisconsin.
It is also the least densely populated with less than 50.000 inhabitants.
And it may become the richest in the future: beneath the soil the worlds largest copper deposit was found, exploration is to start soon.
Needless to say it is a harsh and remote place but hosts some of Mongolia's main tourist attractions.
So many people take the long way of 600 km along bumpy roads to visit this desert region.
The dunes shown above in the first thread are the Khongoryn Els ("Singing Sand Dunes")
(flickr)
They measure 180 km in length and are 12 km wide in average.
Some dunes reach heights of over 100 meters.
But there are even bigger areas covered with vdunes in Mongolia which extend up to 300 km in length.
These dunes are overshadowed by the Altai mountain range