Karakorum was the capital of the Mongol Empire between 1235 and 1260 and of the Northern Yuan in the 14–15th centuries. Its ruins lie in the northwestern corner of the Övörkhangai Province of Mongolia, near today's town of Kharkhorin and adjacent to the Erdene Zuu Monastery, the probable earliest surviving Buddhist monastery in Mongolia. They are part of the upper part of the World Heritage site Orkhon Valley.
