The Ice Gorge in the Gobi Desert
In the Gobi Desert, a narrow canyon holds a field of thick ice that survives well into the summer heat.
What was reported
Yolyn Am, 'Valley of the Vultures', is a deep, narrow gorge in the Gurvan Saikhan mountains of the Gobi Desert in southern Mongolia. Its floor holds a thick sheet of ice, metres deep, that once stayed all year round and still lasts well into the summer.
For visitors coming from the hot, dry desert, the cold, shaded gorge, with its rushing stream and snow-like ice, is a surprise.
Explanations offered
The gorge is so narrow and deep that little direct sunlight reaches its floor, and cold air settles there. Ice builds up in winter from water seeping in. In recent years, with warming temperatures, the ice has been melting earlier.
- When
- Ice lasts into summer
- Where
- Yolyn Am, Ömnögovi, Mongolia
- Witnesses
- Herders and visitors
- Status
- Explained
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.
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