Now, one reason you would want to visit the Flaming Cliffs in the Gobi Desert would be to see the site where the first ever dinosaur eggs were found. Let me tell you this – if I were a dinosaur, this is the place I’d want to be found in too. Such is the beauty of the Flaming Cliffs.
The Flaming Cliffs
Located in the Omnogovi Province of Mongolia (most tour companies include a visit to this site), this spectacular site is definitely a must see. This site was discovered (and named by) Roy Andrew Chapman, an American explorer, who had visited Mongolia in 1920.
Following the discovery, Roy apparently carried back all that he discovered, including the dinosaur fossil (which is now in a museum in Ulanbaatar) on camelbacks. The Flaming Cliffs or Bayanzag gets its name because the sandstone cliffs erupt into bright colours during sunset. While you may be inspired to walk down the cliffs, on a hot day it can get extremely tiring. Do remember to carry a bottle of water.
The views from below, however are worth the hike. I opted to stay where I was though – it was a very cloudy day and hence very “stuffy” – but the good thing was it rained right after. Some parts of the desert also tends to get flooded during the rains.
Who lived at the Flaming Cliffs
Protoceratops was the first dinosaur discovered at the Flaming Cliffs in 1922. With a beak like a bird but a body with four legs, it may have been found by ancient travellers and interpreted as the legendary griffin. Velociraptor, the sharp-clawed predator who starred in the Jurassic Park films, was first discovered at the Flaming Cliffs in the Mongolian Gobi Desert. Scientists now know that it was feathered, and they believe it hunted Protoceratops–not people. Oviraptor’s name means “egg stealer” because the first one ever found–at Mongolia’s Flaming Cliffs–was fossilized with a nest of eggs. We now know that the eggs were actually its own, and it was just being a good parent. Oviraptors came to the area to build their nests and hatch their young. Weighing two tons and covered with spiky armor, Pinacosaurus was a formidable herbivore. The first one known to modern science was found at Mongolia’s Flaming Cliffs in 1923.
Locals selling a variety of stones and other items at the site.
Who says it doesn’t rain in the Gobi? Look at that sky! A few minutes after we left the site, it rained. Rain in Gobi, accompanied by thunder and flashes of lightening is a sight not easily forgotten.
Getting to the Flaming Cliffs
It’s a long way from Ulan Bator to reach this site. One of the things that makes Flaming Cliffs such a romantic fossil destination is its utter remoteness, geographically speaking, from any nearby outposts of civilization; the most densely inhabited regions of China are at least a thousand miles away. When Andrews made his historic trip a century ago, he had to take along provisions worthy of a polar expedition, including a large team of local guides mounted on horseback, and he set off in a blizzard of press coverage and popular adulation (in fact, Andrews was at least partly the inspiration for Harrison Ford’s character in the Indiana Jones movies.) Today, this region of Mongolia is a bit more accessible to devoted paleontologists, but still not a place the average family would choose to go on vacation.
