Genghis Khan, the famed Mongolian ruler, and his many descendants once ruled over the largest contiguous empire in human history. Gifted with such large expanses of land, the Mongolian's nomadic tendencies remained in the people's cultural DNA for centuries. Even today, at its much reduced size, the country remains four times as large as Germany—and contains fewer than three million inhabitants. In today's cramped and crowded world, such ample space would seem to offer the hope of continuing these long-practiced customs.
Yet a boom in the mining industry—sparked by a rush for resources like coal and gold—have radically changed the economic and cultural complexion of this once traditional country. Over the past decade, Mongolia has been transformed into one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. Not surprisingly, this wild material growth has come with an attendant rise in inequality and even more strikingly, an increasingly urbanized lifestyle. Whether for those at the bottom, or those few at the top, Mongolia is no longer defined by its wide open expanses but by its dangerously dirty and crowded cities.