Orkhon Valley Cultural Landscape (/ˈɔːrkɒn/;[1] Mongolian: Орхоны хөндийн соёлын дурсгал, Orkhonii khöndiin soyoliin dursgal, Mongolian Script:ᠣᠷᠬᠣᠨ ᠤ ᠬᠥᠨᠳᠡᠢ ᠶᠢᠨ ᠰᠤᠶᠤᠯ ᠤᠨ ᠳᠤᠷᠠᠰᠬᠠᠯ ) sprawls along the banks of the Orkhon River in Central Mongolia, some 320 km west from the capital Ulaanbaatar.

It was inscribed by UNESCO in the World Heritage List as representing the development of nomadic pastoral traditions spanning more than two millennia.

The first evidence comes from a stone stele with Orkhon inscriptions, which was erected in the valley by Bilge Khan, an 8th-century ruler of the Göktürk Empire.

Some 25 miles to the north of the stele, in the shadow of the sacred forest-mountain Ötüken, was his Ördü, or nomadic capital.

Moreover, a force called kut was believed to emanate from this mountain, granting the khagan the divine right to rule the Turkic tribes.