AKIPRESS.COM - Google has now added Mongolia to the increasing list of countries covered by Street View - all thanks to a traditional horse-drawn sled, Daily Mail reports.

After recording images of towns and cities across the world, Google's Street View service launched in the vast, sparsely-populated Asian country yesterday.

The U.S. technology giant used a traditional horse-drawn sled to carry its camera to remote locations including Lake Khovsgol, Asia's second-largest body of fresh water.

Google said in order to capture the rugged mountains near the Gobi desert a local operator carried the camera in her backpack.

The service officially launched in the Mongolian capital, Ulaanbaatar yesterday in an event held jointly with government officials where the California-based firm unveiled digital pictures of a total 5,500 kilometres of road.

Google's camera, which is slightly larger than a basketball, contains 15 individual fixed-focus lenses that simultaneously capture a 360-degree image roughly every three metres.

Local officials said they welcomed the opportunity to preserve vanishing traces of Mongolia's traditional nomadic culture and boost tourism in a country well off the beaten path.

With a population of only three million and a territory more than twice the size of France, Mongolia is the least densely populated country in the world.