Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia: Self-Guided Walking Tour

Ulaanbaatar is Mongolia’s capital and its largest meeting point of history, religion, art, science and everyday urban life. The city’s museums, monasteries, theatres and memorials offer an introduction to Mongolia’s past, from the Mongol Empire and nomadic cultures to the country’s modern history. Neywo has a free audio guide for Ulaanbaatar with 36 narrated places.

What to See in Ulaanbaatar

Choijin Lama Temple Museum

Choijin Lama Temple is a Buddhist monastery complex in the Sükhbaatar District and one of the few religious sites to survive Mongolia’s communist era. Built between 1904 and 1908 for Choijin Lama Luvsankhaidav, the brother of the Eighth Bogd Khan, it later became a museum in 1938.

Today, it presents Tibetan-Mongolian religious art. The main temple contains an 18th-century gilt statue of Buddha Sakyamuni, a statue of Choijin Lama Luvsankhaidav and the embalmed corpse of Baldan Choephel, alongside religious instruments and other objects.

National Academic Drama Theatre

The National Academic Drama Theatre is one of Mongolia’s most important performing-arts institutions. Established on November 12, 1931, it was the country’s first professional drama theatre.

The institution changed names several times during its history, reflecting its changing role in Mongolia’s cultural life. It is located in the Sükhbaatar District, in the heart of the capital.

Fountain Square, or Beatles Square

Fountain Square is a central gathering place in the Sükhbaatar District. Its Mongolian name refers to the fountains, while many people know it as Beatles Square because of the statue of the British band located there.

It makes a useful stop between the city’s museums and cultural landmarks, and offers a glimpse of how Ulaanbaatar’s public spaces combine local life with international cultural references.

Chinggis Khaan National Museum

The Chinggis Khaan National Museum opened on October 11, 2022, in Ulaanbaatar’s Chingeltei District. Dedicated to the life and legacy of Genghis Khan, founder of the Mongol Empire, it follows the history of the Mongol state across many centuries.

Its exhibitions begin with the Xiongnu Empire and continue through the era of Bogd Khan’s Mongolia. For visitors interested in the origins and development of the Mongol state, it is one of the city’s most direct introductions to this part of the country’s history.

National Museum of Mongolia

The National Museum of Mongolia is the country’s largest and most prominent museum. Its roughly ten exhibition halls trace Mongolian history from the Stone Age to the present, with displays on nomadic culture, traditional customs and the heritage of Mongolia’s ethnic groups.

The collection holds approximately 50,000 objects, making the museum an important starting point for understanding Mongolia’s past. Before its 1991 reconstruction, the building was known as the Museum of the Revolution.

Fine Arts Zanabazar Museum

Founded in 1966, the Fine Arts Zanabazar Museum is named after Zanabazar, one of Mongolia’s best-known historical and artistic figures. Its collection brings together works by Mongolian fine-arts masters from the 18th through the 20th centuries.

The museum offers a focused look at the country’s artistic heritage and complements the broader historical collections found elsewhere in central Ulaanbaatar.

Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral

In the Bayanzürkh District, Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral stands out for its unusual architecture. It is the main Roman Catholic cathedral in Mongolia and is designed in the shape of a traditional Mongolian yurt.

The building connects a Christian institution with a distinctly Mongolian architectural form, making it one of the city’s most distinctive religious landmarks.

Red Rock Castle

Red Rock Castle was originally built in 1969, when the National Cultural Recreation Center was established in Ulaanbaatar. It functioned as an ethnographic museum until around the mid-2000s and was renovated and rebuilt in a Western style in 2010.

The building has three towers with battlements and three floors. A stone wall in an East Asian style surrounds it, and the castle stands within an artificial lake. It now serves as a restaurant and is also known as the National Amusement Park.

Central Museum of Dinosaurs of Mongolia

The Natural History Museum of Mongolia brings together geology, geography, flora, fauna, palaeontology and anthropology. Its holdings include more than 15,000 specimens, around 45 percent of which are on permanent public display.

The museum is particularly known for its dinosaur collection, including a nearly complete skeleton of a late Cretaceous Tarbosaurus and broadly contemporaneous nests of Protoceratops eggs. Its history dates back to 1924, when it was established as the National Museum.

International Intellectual Museum

The International Intellectual Museum, known locally as the Oyuun Ukhaany Museum, opened on August 13, 1990. It was Mongolia’s first private museum.

Instead of focusing on national history or fine art, the museum is dedicated to intellectual games and puzzles from around the world. It provides a different kind of cultural experience, centred on the ways people in different societies have challenged the mind through play.

Mongolian Military Museum

The Mongolian Military Museum, also called the Museum of the Mongolian Armed Forces, is in the Bayanzürkh District, across from an army barracks. It is part of the Ministry of Defense and traces Mongolian military history back to the Mongol Empire.

The museum was established in 1966 as the Museum of the Mongolian People’s Army, following a decision by the State Great Khural. Its collections offer a long view of warfare, strategy and national defence in Mongolia.

Mongolian Railway History Museum

Near Ulaanbaatar’s main railway station, the Mongolian Railway History Museum presents the country’s railway heritage. It contains old trains and railway equipment, showing how the railway contributed to Mongolia’s development.

Its location in the Sükhbaatar District makes it an easy addition to a walk through the city centre.

Ulaanbaatar City Museum

The Ulaanbaatar City Museum is devoted to preserving and promoting the history and cultural heritage of the capital. It also functions as a research and urban-studies centre.

The building itself is a highlight: it is considered a landmark of early 20th-century Mongolian architecture and has never undergone any major renovations since it was established.

National University of Mongolia

Founded in 1942, the National University of Mongolia is the country’s oldest and most influential institution of higher education. It was originally named Choibalsan State University and became Mongolia’s first university.

The institution has played an important role in the country’s intellectual and political life. Several major universities, including those focused on science and technology, life sciences, medicine and the humanities, trace their origins to its faculties and sub-institutes.

Zaisan Memorial

The Zaisan Memorial stands on a hill in the Khan-Uul District. It honours allied Mongolian and Soviet soldiers who died during the Second World War, and commemorates the Red Army’s support for Mongolia’s People’s Revolution and the Soviet-Mongolian victory at Khalkhin Gol.

The climb leads to a panorama over Ulaanbaatar, making the memorial both a historical site and a place to see the capital from above.

Explore Ulaanbaatar with Neywo

Neywo’s free Ulaanbaatar audio guide includes 36 narrated places. The app offers three walking tours and one bike route:

• Chinggis Khaan’s Capital: The Square, the Palace and the Museums — 0.91 km, 41 minutes and 5 narrated stops.
• Temples, Mansions and Dinosaurs: Central Ulaanbaatar on Foot — 3.57 km, 110 minutes and 10 narrated stops.
• East Ulaanbaatar: A Marshal, a Mystic and a Yurt-Shaped Cathedral — 3.05 km, 72 minutes and 5 narrated stops.
• East Side Museum Ride — a 0.8 km bike route taking 4 minutes, with 3 narrated stops.

Download Neywo and explore Ulaanbaatar at your own pace: the app tells the story of each place as you reach it, with no group and no schedule. Narration is available in 11 languages. You can also continue planning your trip with the Mongolia destination guide.