The lakes in Mongolia are distributed unevenly across the country. Many, including some of the largest, can be found in the Great Lakes Depression between the Altai Mountains, Altai, Khangai Mountains, Khangai and Tannu-Ola Mountains, Tannu-Ola mountain ranges in the west. A second group can be found in mountain valleys throughout the country. Lake Khövsgöl in a rift valley south of the Russian Sayan Mountains has the largest volume because of its great depth. The remaining lakes found in the steppe areas and in the Gobi desert are usually smaller and shallow.
The total area of the lakes is 16,003 km². The 83.7% of the total lakes number are the small lakes with surface area less than 0.1 km² (5.6% of the total area). There are 3,060 lakes with surface area 0.1 km² and more.
["Surface Water of Mongolia", Gombo Davaa, Dambaravjaa Oyunbaatar, Michiaki Sugita](_blank)
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References
Ministry of Environment of Mongolia web site(in Mongolian)
{{Asia topic, List of lakes of
Lists of lakes by country, Mongolia
Lakes of Mongolia, *
Lists of landforms of Mongolia, Lakes