Visit Kharakorum, Mongolia

In 1220 Genghis Khan chose to move his capital west from Khentii to Karakorum.

Though the city was not completed until after his death it was, for a time, the political, economic and cultural centre of the vast Mongol Empire, housing great palaces, mosques, churches and monasteries representing many of the world’s religions.

Barely a stone now remains, but the sense of history is tangible, and the nearby Erdene Zuu Khiid, the oldest Buddhist monastery in Mongolia, offers a taste of the region’s glorious past.