How did they live?

Tribes: They did not live in towns. The Mongols were nomads. They traveled in small groups composed of perhaps only two or three families. You might travel 20 miles before you ran into another family group.

They used camels and oxen and carts to travel.

Their homes, called yurts, were odd looking, portable, and very comfortable. These people received their nickname - the felt tent people - from their unusual homes.

Their clothing was very colorful, and their food just the opposite - they are famous for white food and salty tea. 

Although the Mongols were nomads, they still had a royalty of sorts - chieftains, and later khans. These were the leaders of various tribes. In ancient times, a tribe did not necessarily travel together. But they did get together at festivals, and in times of need.

Toys: Puzzles were popular. Games included archery, horse racing, wrestling, and guessing games.

Kids played many bone games - games they made up using the bones of animals. Bones were used as targets. Bones were used in races. Bones were used as a guessing game - kids guessed how many bones were in a pile.

Mongol Kids: From a very early age, kids were taught to respect their parents. They were taught survival skills - how to collect dry animal dung for firewood, how to milk cattle, how to use a bow and arrow, and how to cook and sew.

Good Behavior: The most important things Mongol parents taught their children had to do with behavior. Everything they did, including the toys they gave their children, and the stories they told, were designed to teach their children to be ethical, honest, and skilled - to have good behavior.

dentification. Genghis Khan banded the Mongolian tribes together for the first time in 1206 and formed a unified state. The steppe empires and nomadic culture created by the ancient Mongols hold a unique place in world history, and modern Mongols are very proud of this particular heritage.

Location and Geography. Mongolia is a large landlocked country in Central Asia, and is bordered on the north by the Russian Federation and on the south by the People's Republic of China. Measuring 604,100 square miles (1,565,000 square kilometers) in area, the country is larger than Western Europe, encompassing several geographical zones: desert, steppe, and mountainous terrain. Mongolia's climate is extreme, with low precipitation and long harsh winters where temperatures can dip to -50 degrees centigrade. The capital city is Ulaanbaatar, meaning "Red Hero."

Demography. With only 2.6 million people as of July 2000, Mongolia is one of the world's most sparsely populated countries. The nation also has an extremely young population, with over 70 percent of people less than thirty years old.

Linguistic Affiliation. Khalkha Mongolian is the official language and is spoken by 90 percent of the people. Minor languages include Kazakh, Russian, and Chinese. Khalka Mongolian is part of the diverse Uralic-Altaic language family, which spread with the ancient Mongol Empire and also contains Korean, Manchu, Turkish, Finnish, and Hungarian. Each of these languages features a highly inflected grammar. Khalkha Mongolian may be written in traditional Uighur (vertical) or Cyrillic script.

Symbolism. The national symbol is the soyombo, featured on the Mongolian flag. Each aspect of the complex design is meaningful and there are components representing fire, sun, moon, earth, water, and the yin-yang symbol. The soyombo dates to at least the 17th century, and is associated with Lamaism.