Hovd - City of Mongolia

Khovd, also Hovd and Kobdo in older books, is the capital of the Khovd Province of Mongolia.

Khovd is situated at the foot of the Mongolian Altay Mountains, on the Buyant Gol river. The Khar Us Nuur is located approximately 25 km east of Khovd, and is the location of a Strictly Protected Area ,called the Mankhan Nature Preserve.

Khovd is known throughout the region for its watermelon and tomato harvest in the late summer, as well as the high quality of its seasonal meat products.

As a result of administrative reforms in 1992, Khovd was accorded the status of Jargalant sum. City area is 80 km2.

On 7th August 1912 during the Mongol war of independence against China a Mongol rebbel army took Hovd and destroyed all the Chinese authority's ancestral debt records that were stored there.

Khovd is notorious for its harsh weather cycles, as temperatures regularly reach as high as 40 degrees Celsius and as low as -30 degrees Celsius. The climate is dry, as it receives the same average rainfall of Phoenix, Arizona each year.

Khovd is distinguished by its multi-cultural population. It is home to more than 17 nationalities and ethnicities. Each of these groups has its own distinct traditional dwelling and settlement pattern, dress and other cultural distinctions, literary, artistic, and musical traditions. There is a rather large minority Kazakh-Mongol population that speaks both Kazakh and Mongolian.