Short answers, pulled from the story.
Mongolia is a landlocked country in the East Asia region, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers more than 1.5 million square kilometers, making it the world's 18th-largest country and the second-largest landlocked country after Kazakhstan.
Mongolia has a population of 3.5 million spread across an area of over 1.5 million square kilometers, making it the world's most sparsely populated sovereign state, excluding partially unrecognized Western Sahara. Roughly half the population lives in the capital, Ulaanbaatar, while about 30% remain nomadic or semi-nomadic.
Genghis Khan founded the Mongol Empire in 1206, when the chieftain Temujin took that title after uniting the Mongol tribes. It became the largest contiguous land empire in history, covering some 33 million square kilometers at its height, about 22% of Earth's land area.
Mongolia declared independence after the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1911 and achieved actual independence again on the 11th of July 1921 with Soviet support. In 1924 the Mongolian People's Republic was established as a socialist state, closely aligned with the Soviet Union for the next seven decades.
Buddhism is the majority religion in Mongolia at 51.7% of people aged 15 and above, according to the 2020 National Census, with the non-religious as the second-largest group at 40.6%. Islam is third at 3.2%, concentrated among ethnic Kazakhs.
Mining drives Mongolia's economy, with minerals making up more than 80% of exports and copper, coal, molybdenum, tin, tungsten, and gold as key resources. China takes 78% of Mongolia's exports, and a 233-kilometer rail link to China opened in September 2022 to expand coal sales.
Naadam is Mongolia's main national festival, held from the 11th to the 13th of July over three days. It features the Three Manly Games of archery, cross-country horse-racing, and wrestling, and marks the anniversaries of the National Democratic Revolution and the foundation of the Great Mongol State.