Töv Province (from Mongolian ''төв'' 'centre') is one of the 21

provinces A province is an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions outside Italy. The term ''provi ...

Mongolia Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south and southeast. It covers an area of , with a population of 3.5 million, making it the world's List of countries and dependencies by po ...

. The national capital

Ulaanbaatar Ulaanbaatar is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities in Mongolia, most populous city of Mongolia. It has a population of 1.6 million, and it is the coldest capital city in the world by average yearly temperature. The municipa ...

is located roughly at its center, but the city itself is administered as an independent municipality.

Geography

The province (aimag) includes the western part of the Khentii Mountains, the mountains around the capital, as well as rolling steppe in the south and west. The most interesting body of water is the Tuul River, which crosses Ulaanbaatar and later joins the

Orkhon River The Orkhon River ( ) is the longest river in Mongolia. It rises in the Khangai Mountains in the Tsenkher, Tsenkher sum of Arkhangai Province, Arkhangai Provinces of Mongolia, aimag at the foot of the Suvraga Khairkhan mountain. From there, it ...

Population

Töv Province is populated primarily by

Khalkha Mongols The Khalkha (; ) have been the largest subgroup of the Mongols in modern Mongolia since the 15th century. The Khalkha, together with Chahars, Ordos Mongols, Ordos and Tumed, were directly ruled by Borjigin khans until the 20th century. In cont ...

, followed by

Kazakhs The Kazakhs (Kazakh language, Kazakh: , , , ) are a Turkic peoples, Turkic ethnic group native to Central Asia and Eastern Europe. They share a common Culture of Kazakhstan, culture, Kazakh language, language and History of Kazakhstan, history ...

Buryats The Buryats are a Mongolic ethnic group native to southeastern Siberia who speak the Buryat language. They are one of the two largest indigenous groups in Siberia, the other being the Yakuts. The majority of the Buryats today live in their ti ...

, and Dörbet Oirats.

Traffic

The central traffic node is the enclave

. The city includes the largest station of the Trans-Mongolian Railway and the Buyant-Ukhaa International Airport. A small airport with an unpaved runway also exists in the aimag capital Zuunmod.

Culture

Manjusri Monastery is located near Zuunmod in the Bogd Khan Mountain national park. It was founded in 1733 and used to be the home of 20 temples and 300 monks. Most of it was destroyed by the communists, yet the last temple was restored after democratisation and hosts a small museum today.

National parks

The Gorkhi-Terelj National Park was founded in 1993. It covers a part of the Khentii Mountains. It is most well known for its spectacular rock formations, including a rock that looks like a giant turtle from the right perspective. The landscape has an alpine character, with

larch Larches are deciduous conifers in the genus ''Larix'', of the family Pinaceae (subfamily Laricoideae). Growing from tall, they are native to the cooler regions of the northern hemisphere, where they are found in lowland forests in the high la ...

and

pine A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. ''World Flora Online'' accepts 134 species-rank taxa (119 species and 15 nothospecies) of pines as cu ...

forests, sparkling mountain rivers, and very diverse flora and fauna. In Khustain Nuruu National Park, about 120 km south west of Ulaanbaatar, the original wild horses, ''Takhi'' of Mongolia ( Przewalski horses) have been released to the wild again in a process first begun in 1993. The project has been quite successful, and has developed into an attraction for both scientists and tourists. The Gun-Galuut Nature Reserve is a protected area founded in 2003 to conserve globally threatened species and their habitat. The

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status ...

red-listed species - white-naped crane, hooded crane, Siberian white crane, swan goose and argali-wild mountain sheep and many other species listed in the National Red book of Mongolia are found here. Because it is considered sacred, the mountain Mount Bogd Khan south of Ulaanbaatar has been a protected area since 1778. During socialism, it was formally established as a national park. This stopped the

urban sprawl Urban sprawl (also known as suburban sprawl or urban encroachment) is defined as "the spreading of urban developments (such as houses and shopping centers) on undeveloped land near a city". Urban sprawl has been described as the unrestricted ...

of the capital on its southern side.

Maidar City

In Sergelen, the urban development project Maidar City is planned to relieve the Mongolian capital Ulaanbaatar. This project will multiply the population of this aimag.

Administrative subdivisions

Economy

In 2018, the province contributed to 1.85% of the total national GDP of Mongolia.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tov Province Provinces of Mongolia States and territories established in 1931 1931 establishments in Mongolia