Terelj's Crystal Cave(s)

I tried hard. Very hard. To find more caves than the 100 Monks Cave... but it was difficult. After long period of Internet searching, I settled on visiting the Crystal "cave", even if it was just an abandoned man-made mine. It was nearby though, also in Terelj, and not 17 hour drive away so that's a positive :-) But my first guide was unable to take me to this place, so I looked for another guide company. A got the whole deal, the driver, the guy who speaks English to me, and the local guide who knows where the mine is :-)

Except ... maybe not. After hiking for a long time in an admittedly beautiful valleys among spectacular rock formations in sunshine but also freezing wind, the guide couldn't find the mine. We did find it, eventually, after several calls to people in the know, and more walking.

Except ... maybe not. This wasn't the Crystal cave I had found from the Internet. It was a crystal mine for sure, and had the crystals around it to prove it. It was also made by Chinese like the other one. However, it was a different mine, in a different location. That's of course alright, I still got a crystal mine :-)

Except ... I didn't. We were standing next to the hole, with no ropes or other ways to enter the vertical shaft down to the mine floor 10+ meters below. So we couldn't actually go inside. The other mine would have been horizontal.

Anyway, it was a very nice walk in the mountains, and I saw some smaller cavelets or mini-caves along the way, and spectacular red rock. And met a very nice family living in a Ger (yurt tent), and had a superb lunch, though of course all meals are probably superb after a roundtrip 10km walk in the mountains :-)

So I'm happy, after all :-) 

Here's the mine I was originally trying to get to:

The West Crystal Cave, again in Terelj National Park. This is an old mine, so man-made underground tunnel. I have not been here, but pictures show nice icicles etc. It seems possible to enter this place. The coordinates are N 47.876958 E 107.372582. The location is west of the main road going through Terelj. You will have to hike kilometers from the road to the top of the ridge. See these links for more information: Google Maps, Lonely Planet, Monrevetours, Monrevetours photos on Flickr, Facebook tour advertisement.

(Photo by Monrevetours in Flickr)

And here's the mine we ended up in:

The East Crystal Cave, also in Terelj National Park. East of the main road this time. This is also a mine, and one that I visited. Or at least stood on entrance to it. You can't enter without ropes, the mine is a tunnel straight down until it branches off horizontally. I hiked 5 kilometers (one-way) from nearest road to get here. The coordinates are N 47.912347 E 107.48860. 

The other caves I saw are here:

A tiny roof cave in boulders (or cavelet), again in Terelj National Park. The coordinates are N 47.910005 E 107.48736. The sheltered area is approximately 2.5 m.

FWIW, I also looked at a crack in one of the cliffs (coordinates N 47.903264 E 107.47713) but in the end determined that this was too small to be listed even as a cavelet.

A roof cave in a cliff face, used as a cow shed of a farm. Again in Terelj National Park. This seems more like a real cave, though as it was on someone's farm, I did not enter it. The coordinates are N 47.889781 E 107.46194. The sheltered area is longer than 5 m, but since I was not next to the cave, I was unable to measure this exactly.

Here are some of the other views from this walkabout:

For more caves in Mongolia, read the my summary article.

Read the full Planetskier series at planetskier.net, urban exploration stories from theurbanexplorer.net, and other underground stories from planetcaver.net, or all blog articles from Blogspot, TGR. Photos and text (c) 2025 by Jari Arkko, except where otherwise indicated. All rights reserved.