Program 01 · South Gobi

The Gobi

Not Mars. Earth — on a different timeline.

Khermen Tsav

Approach

43.4721° N · 99.8604° E

The red cliffs

The most Martian place on Earth

Iron oxide gives Khermen Tsav its red. A hundred million years ago this canyon was a seabed. Today nothing moves here but the wind.

Tsagaan Suvarga · 60 m

A cliff you can read

Every band of colour is an era. These sediment layers write the story of an ancient seabed from top to bottom — you only need to learn to read them.

Yolyn Am · 2,200 m

Ice in the heart of the Gobi

Sunlight never reaches the floor of this narrow gorge in the Gurvan Saikhan range, so ice survives into midsummer. Thirty degrees of difference between two rock walls.

Seventy million years

Every layer is 1,000 years

Late Cretaceous · 70 million years ago

They walked right here

Tarbosaurus bataar, Protoceratops, Velociraptor. Not on the sand you're standing on — four metres beneath it.

The dig site

Brush away the sand, a story appears

In 1923 the first scientifically recognised dinosaur eggs were found at Bayanzag. The Gobi has been one of the richest fossil grounds on Earth ever since.

NEMEGT FORMATION · 70 Ma

Today · 2026

Welcome to Mongolia

On that same sand, herder families still move with the seasons. Nothing stands between seventy million years of history and a bowl of milk tea.

The 7 days

  1. Day 1

    Ulaanbaatar → Tsagaan Suvarga

    The day you leave the city. Sunset over sixty metres of sediment cliff.

  2. Day 2

    Yolyn Am

    A walk into the Gurvan Saikhan gorge. Still iced over in midsummer.

  3. Day 3

    Khongoryn Els

    The singing dunes. Camel caravan and a night with a herder family.

    A night with a herder family

  4. Day 4

    Bayanzag

    The 1923 dig site — where dinosaur eggs were first found.

  5. Day 5

    Khermen Tsav

    The remotest point of the trip. A night camped among the red cliffs.

    A night camped among the red cliffs

  6. Day 6

    Nemegt Basin

    Out on the fossil beds with a palaeontologist. Nothing leaves the site — you only look.

  7. Day 7

    The road back

    Ulaanbaatar. Every photo, note and field record from the trip goes into the archive.

Seven days, two guides, and a camp that moves with you. This is the South Gobi at its emptiest: red cliffs that have given up more dinosaur eggs than anywhere on Earth, a canyon that holds blue ice into July, and nights dark enough that the Milky Way casts a shadow.