UGII LAKE

To protect the wetlands of Ugii Lake, one of the main nesting sites for waterfowl, the Ramsar Convention registered Ugii Lake as a protected water ecosystem in 1971. There are 14 species of fish, 27 species of floating plants, and 48 species of floating animals related to the Arctic Ocean ecosystem. Therefore, attracting its natural distinction, some 150 species of water birds gather along the lake. Also, the International Network for the Protection of Birds listed the Ugii Lake because of its presence of rare birds such as Swan Goose, White Spoonbill, Dalmatian Pelican, and ducks from Northeast Asia.

Ugii Lake is located in a lower depression between the mountains of the steppe region of Ugiinuur sum area of Arkhangai province, 80km from Kharkhorin and 386km from Ulaanbaatar. It is 7 kilometers long, 5 kilometers wide, and covers an area of 25 square kilometers. Its maximum depth is 15 meters. Orkhon River water drains into its west basin. 

As told in the Ugii Lake Legend, once upon a time, a nobleman had a beautiful daughter named Ugii, who was amazed by her homeland. The nobleman was rich in horses and cattle and had many servants. His daughter grew up and fell in love with a tall, handsome local horseman. One day, servants for the nobleman found out about the young couple’s relationship and gossiped about it to the daughter’s rich parents. The rich nobleman refused his daughter to marry a poor horseman, and he rushed his daughter to marry a rich man. Shortly afterward, while Ugii and the young horseman were meeting on a date, the nobleman's servants saw and arrested the young man to end to death. The young man told to his beloved Ugii "I will become Avzaga Khairkhan mountain in my homeland, and I will give you a beautiful lake.” Hereafter, the tears of the daughter named Ugii shed for her beloved boyfriend turned into a lake and remained in her name. Since then, the Ugii Lake's fog moves to the Avzaga Khairkhan Mountain and is absorbed there. Since the Ugii Lake's guard is woman, it is believed that a woman who immerse in it suffers. Therefore, to please Ugii Lake, locals worshiped the surrounding mountains called Bayart Ovoo, Tsagaan Ovoo, and Altangerel Ovoo.