The site is sit­u­at­ed in the north-east of the coun­try in the cen­tral part of the Khen­tii moun­tain chain where the vast Cen­tral Asian steppe meets the conif­er­ous forests of the Siber­ian taiga. Burkhan Khal­dun is asso­ci­at­ed with the wor­ship of sacred moun­tains, rivers and ovoo‑s (shaman­ic rock cairns), in which cer­e­monies have been shaped by a fusion of ancient shaman­ic and Bud­dhist prac­tices. The site is also believed to be the place of Genghis Khan‘s birth and bur­ial. It tes­ti­fies to his efforts to estab­lish moun­tain wor­ship as an impor­tant part of the uni­fi­ca­tion of the Mon­gol peo­ple.