The Khentii Mountains, Resting Place of Genghis Khan

In the Khentii Mountains of Mongolia, the almost 8,000 ft-peak Burkhan Khaldun lies: it is the legendary burial place of Genghis Khan, one of Eurasia’s most ambitious and brutal rulers. From a distance of 800 years, it is easy to allow awe rather than horror to surface as the primary estimation of the Mongolian warlord. New findings about his life and death still beckon historians to reassess his reign.

Genghis Khan, born Temüjin, conquered more contiguous landmass than any other leader in history, arising to power after a youth that included enduring his father’s death at age nine, surviving as a refuge on the harsh Steppes, and even spending some time in slavery before gathering enough followers and strength to build his empire, an area that spanned between Moscow and Beijing in the 13th century.

Maybe you have heard of the genetics research published in 2003 that analyzed a prominent lineage among 8% of men across much of Asia who all shared the same male ancestor who had lived almost 1,000 years ago. The authors of the study argued that this founder was Genghis Khan, which would make him an ancestor of about ~0.5% of the human global population.

This progenitor of so much life also caused massive death. Population totals across Asia experienced a massive decline during his reign, as the Mongolian armies destroyed whole cities and peoples as they expanded — the minimum estimates I read have been four million deaths, but upwards of 40 million might even apply.

In a 2021 article in _The International Journal of Infectious Diseases_, some medical historians argued for a different cause of the Khan’s demise than our admittedly faulty written records have suggested: the Bubonic Plague. Recent studies of the plague have noted that the infamous 14th-century outbreak got started with strings that emerged a whole century earlier. The small Yersinia pestis bacterium proved a more effective killer than the Great Khan, eventually ending the lives of between 75 and 200 million people between 1346-1353.

P.S. the medical idea was specifically about Ghengis Khan’s death — the casualties caused by the Mongol armies were horrifyingly high. Hitler knew it, too, and reflected on it and the Armenian genocide and what he wanted the Nazis to do: “our strength consists in our speed and in our brutality. Genghis Khan led millions of women and children to slaughter — with premeditation and a happy heart. History sees in him solely the founder of a state . . . . Who, after all, speaks today if the annihilation of the Armenians?” ☹️