Hi all,
we've just releasing a new guidebook about Mongolia, and although it is in French only, we're giving away a full-scale map of the country with the majors roads and landmarks.

In our experience there isn't a good map about Mongolia, all are pretty much wrong half of the place. This one may not be much better but it's free (as in free ). So you can download it, print it, etc.. but do not modify it and please do not upload it to other websites. It's based mostly on our own experience, but also other's and OpenStreetMap as well.

Yes, you can find the same data in OpenStreetMap, but it's not easy to print and doesn't give a good sense of hierarchy. Indeed, the digital maps made out of it (think maps.me, OruxMaps, etc.. ) are difficult to use because you have to zoom in a lot to see some otherwise important tracks. Why ? because any unsurfaced road could be tagged as a "primary road", a "secondary road", a "track" or a random "road", depending on the contributor's mood, but the result is that they show at very different zoom levels. The scheme is well tuned for western countries, but doesn't quite work in Mongolia.

Note: there are thousands of tracks in Mongolia that could qualify as roads, or not, depending on how you look at it. So all maps are very subjective, including this one. But I believe it can be very useful, particularly in the early stages of planning, to get the full picture. The landmarks correspond to the selection of itineraries described in our book, so they're far from exhaustive.

Of course, all feedback and corrections are welcome, I'd like to keep it current and improve on it, as a lot of road building is happening right now in Mongolia.

Enjoy !

Laurent + Cécile



Sorry I can't upload it here as an attachment as it's too big - even with low-res terrain.
The PDF map can be downloaded here: https://www.overlandaventure.com/categorie-produit/maps/
And for those who get along with French, our guidebook can be ordered here: Overland Aventure

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2- and 4-wheeled explorer and photographer
Overland Aventure

Last year is was in Mongolia and have marked quite a lot of things. Shops. Bathhouses. General stuff. They are not in osm yet. Interested to have them?

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk

lbendel;

You are correct in that maps that are configured for world use (OSM, Garmin, TomTom etc) render for those congested parts of the world .. thus render well in Europe, USA ... but are poor in less well populated/developed parts. It has been noted within the OSM community and people are thinking about it. There are also the 'Tracks for Australia' and 'Tracks for Africa' maps that do a good job of bringing adventure tracks to prominence on the map. My thought are that the rendering should take into account the number of things rendered per unit area and increase it where there is little rendered.

Oh, 'unsurfaced' is 'unpaved'.

Blommetje:

Put them into OSM and everyone then has access to them.


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I would like to make 'Adventure' maps - bringing to prominence World Heritage Areas, National Parks, camp sites, roads and tracks where major highways don't exist ... and fuel stations where there are long distances between them. But there are lots of 'thinks to do'...

Thanks. I think any more waypoints would clutter the map. Walter (Colebatch) is maintaining a database of useful waypoints (see sticky post), it would fit better there. Or, as mentioned, add it to OSM, but the problem with OSM is, once a feature is added it's often not updated. Maintenance is a big issue in OSM.

Also, as discussed in that thread, there is now fuel in most towns, so it becomes less important to mark them. My mongolian map has fuel icons almost everywhere, and it's not far from the truth. OTOH, if you have wp for bathhouses, that would be a nice addition to Walter's list as they are often unmarked and difficult to find - unlike petrol stations.

Although if you really want to blend in with the locals you shouldn't worry too much about bathhouses

Laurent

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2- and 4-wheeled explorer and photographer
Overland Aventure

Please see Northern Asia Waypoints file .... and send them in. http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...aypoints-50860

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Well, it's been one year already and many of you have downloaded this map. But my last visit there dates from 2 years back and lots of things have changed in Mongolia in the meantime.

I'd like to keep it up-to-date, with the help of you guys. Many are preparing to visit Mongolia in 2017 and I would like to get recent updates. E.g. I know that they've now surfaced the south road between Altaï and Bayankhongor.

Of course there are thousands of miles of tracks that don't appear on this general map, the idea is to keep only the main roads. But it would be useful to know when a road is being worked on, the surface type, etc..

Ideally, we would find all of this in openstreetmap, but the fact is, it's not very consistent and not updated very often. I've done quite a bit of editing already as I came across errors but it's a long shot.

So if you send it to me, I'll include it in the (always free) printable map and edit the correspnding data in openstreetmap (if not done already). If a new road is being built, I'd need the GPS tracks; if it's being surfaced, the current end of the roadwork; etc.. of course all of this would need to be sharable to the openstreetmap community, so no copyright stuff from Google/Yandex or such (as if Google was of any help in Mongolia..)

I don't think I'll add to the map all the POIs that are being shared, such as hotels and ATMs, that would clutter it too much. Petrol stations are now pretty frequent so I don't think it's so important anymore to mark them. New border posts or restrited area checkpoints are welcome. As are any suggestion ofr improvement, of course.

A v2.0 would come this fall with all the contributions from this summer.

Cheers,
Laurent

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2- and 4-wheeled explorer and photographer
Overland Aventure

Are you sure about the Altaï-Bayankhongor road? I thought only the first 120 km were paved. At least it was in October 2016. See To Mongolia: The Mongolian Road Network

I am interested because we plan to do the southern road this summer on a small 2WD car (not with the Mongol Rally), so I am a bit insecure about making 300km of gravel/sand/washboard.

Thanks,
Josephine

Last year, at July, there were some sections very close to be finished between Altaï-Bayankhongor.

Thousands of 2WD cars do the Southern Route every year.

You will be fine

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