Mongolia lost 700 monasteries in the 1937 purges — what remains sits inside Ulaanbaatar's museums. Three days of gilt bronzes, tsam dance masks, socialist-realist canvases, khöömei singing and the mosaic domes of Zaisan.
Mongolia's richest art collection fills a 1905 merchant's house: gilt bronze deities cast by the monk-sculptor Zanabazar, tsam dance masks, and the panoramic scroll 'One Day in Mongolia'. Open 09:00–18:00 daily.
A five-temple complex built 1904–1908 for the state oracle, spared demolition because it was turned into a museum of 'feudal religion'. Papier-mâché protector deities, tsam costumes and thangkas, now ringed by glass towers.
Above the Palace of Culture on Sukhbaatar Square's east side, three floors trace Mongolian painting from 1920s socialist realism to the Zurag revival — Sharav's crowded nomad scenes through to 1990s abstraction.
The city's main contemporary space, named for Mongolia's dialling code, shows young Ulaanbaatar painters, photographers and installation artists in rotating six-week exhibitions. Free entry, closed Sundays.
The last Bogd Khan lived here until 1924; six Chinese-style temples and a Russian-built residence survive with his ceremonial ger of 150 snow-leopard pelts, gifts from Tsar Nicholas II, and stuffed elephants from his private zoo.
The wooden house of Prime Minister Genden, executed in 1937, kept as a memorial to the 30,000 killed in the purges. Skull fragments from mass graves, monks' files and NKVD execution lists fill four small rooms.
Opened in 2022 across eight floors, this is the deepest telling of the Mongol empire anywhere — Xiongnu gold, Yuan-dynasty paiza passports, Persian and Chinese chronicles, plus a full floor on the empire's successor states.
A nightly hour of khöömei throat singing, morin khuur horsehead fiddle, tsam masked dance and a contortionist, performed in the ensemble's own hall in Nairamdal Park. Shows run daily at 18:00, roughly 40,000₮.
Three enormous white ger-temples on concrete bases, rebuilt on the site of the destroyed Zuun Khuree monastery. Monks chant from around 09:00 and the tsam dance was revived here in 1999 after a 60-year ban.
Ulaanbaatar's socialist-era retail landmark, trading since 1921 and rebuilt in 1961. The sixth floor is the honest version of a souvenir hunt: cashmere by the metre, felt work, morin khuur strings and Mongolian-script calligraphy.
A 1971 circular mosaic on a hill south of the city, showing Soviet–Mongolian friendship from the 1939 Khalkhin Gol battle to Sputnik. Around 300 steps up; the whole valley and the ger districts spread out below.
A basement room on Seoul Street where Mongolian jazz players and visiting musicians run live sets most evenings, often folding morin khuur or throat singing into standards. Doors from around 18:00, no cover on weeknights.