Mongolia – Snake Lily Valley

 

As the mornings' mist became the light
There they dimmed amongst the lilies fair [1]

If you try to google the place Snake Lily Valley now, you're bound to fail because I just invented the toponym, because it sounds awfully captivating. And, to stay true, Snake Lily is definitely not the correct name for the plant or flower in question. The term “Schwertlilie” is more common in German than iris in English, but refers to the same group of plants. Iris is also used in German and here is the relevant quote:

Merci d'être, sans jamais te casser, iris, ma fleur de gravité. [2]

I had already reported on this day of the trip [3]: Between the Achit Nuur (Ачит нуур) and the Üüreg Nuur (Үүрэг нуур) we passed the mining town of the Nuurst Xotgor mine (Нүүрст хотгор) and then drove on to a pass, the landscape was barren with rugged mountains and also round slopes. After visiting the Ovoo (овоо), we first drove further through this landscape and were suddenly surprised when we drove down into a high valley that was covered with irises along its stream [4]. Apparently neither sheep nor goats eat these flowers, otherwise they wouldn't be able to survive. I have pictures, especially of the female fellow travelers, who lay in the flowers to photograph them - but I won't show them. I didn't need to lie down because I'm small and extremely mobile.

If you go from Achit Nuur (Ачит нуур) to Üüreg Nuur (Үүрэг нуур) you will almost certainly drive into this high valley. Go ahead, but you have to drive to make a trip to the northwestern part of Mongolia!

Links and Annotations:
[1] The Dark Night of the Soul by Loreena McKennit – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MclLF473XtA
[2] Translation: “Thank you for being, without ever breaking, iris, my flower of gravity.” More about René Char: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9_Char I love to read his poems!
[3] https://rheumatologe.blogspot.com/2024/02/mongolia-ovoo-on-grave.html
[4] This is not far from Ovoo, Google Maps indicates: 50.00910168940687 N, 90.94004431433501 E.

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