About an hour’s drive from Ulaanbaatar (57 km), on the bank of the Tuul River at Tsonjin Boldog, the statue of Genghis Khan first appears on the horizon as a twinkling speck. As one approaches, he takes the breath away: a 40 meters tall giant on horseback, wrapped in 250 tons of gleaming stainless steel. Visitors can take an elevator and emerge from between his legs to have a panoramic view of the Mongolian steppe from a deck in the horse's head.
The statue built in 2008 is on top of the Genghis Khan Statue Complex, a visitor centre, itself 10 metres tall, with 36 columns representing the 36 khans from Genghis to Ligdan Khan. The Genghis Khan Statue is currently the biggest equestrian statue in the world.