Naadam Festival

The "three games of men" — wrestling, horse racing and archery — and Mongolia's biggest national holiday.

Naadam opens with a grand ceremony at the National Sports Stadium in Ulaanbaatar: horsemen in armour, music and the nine white banners. Over three days, hundreds of wrestlers compete in knockout rounds, child jockeys race horses across the open steppe, and archers — men and women — shoot at targets of small leather rings.

Smaller local Naadams in the countryside are more intimate: you can sit right next to the wrestling ring and meet the families of the riders.