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From outcast nomad to tribal warlord and finally founder of the world's greatest land empire, Genghis Khan went through a lot of changes in a tumultuous life spanning the end of the 12th century and the beginning of the 13th. But perhaps the strangest transformation ever undergone by the Mongolian military genius has come in modern times: his reinvention as a Chinese hero. “Genghis Khan was certainly Chinese,” says Guo Wurong, general manager of the Genghis Khan Mausoleum Tourist District in China's Inner Mongolia region. “We currently define him as a hero of the Mongolian nationality, a great man of...

Celebrating Genghis Khan's Big Year September 29, 2006 by Eric Powell Eight centuries on, the Mongolian conqueror continues to influence culture worldwide. Mongolians love their Khan. Before I traveled to Mongolia last year to report a story on Bronze Age nomads, I'd read about the country's devotion to a man known throughout the rest of the world as the most ruthless and bloodthirsty conqueror in the planet's history. But I was still surprised by the ubiquity of his presence in the capital city Ulaanbaatar (sometimes spelled Ulan Bator, or "Red Hero" in Mongolian). Not only is his visage (sometimes benevolent,...

Of all the wonders in The Palace of the Great Khan, the silver fountain most captivated the visiting monk. It took the shape of "a great silver tree, and at its roots are four lions of silver, each with a conduit through it, and all belching forth white milk of mares," wrote William of Rubruck, a Franciscan friar who toured the Mongol capital, Khara Khorum, in 1254. When a silver angel at the top of the tree trumpeted, still more beverages spouted out of the pipes: wine, clarified mare's milk, a honey drink, rice mead -- take your pick... in...

Vast stretches of Central Asia feel eerily uninhabited. Fly at 30,000 feet over... Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan -- and there are long moments when no town or road or field is visible from your window. Wandering bands and tribes roamed this immense area for 5,000 years, herding goat, sheep, cattle, and horses across immense steppes, through narrow valleys, and over high snowy passes. They left occasional tombs that survived the ages, and on rare occasions settled down and built towns or even cities. But for the most part, these peoples left behind few physical traces of their origins, beliefs, or ways...

February 11, 2003 A Prolific Genghis Khan, It Seems, Helped People the WorldBy NICHOLAS WADE remarkable living legacy of the Mongol empire has been discovered by geneticists in a survey of human populations from the Caucasus to China. They find that as many as 8 percent of the men dwelling in the confines of the former Mongol empire bear Y chromosomes that seem characteristic of the Mongol ruling house. If so, some 16 million men, or half a percent of the world's male population, can probably claim descent from Genghis Khan. The finding seems to be the first proof, on...

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 5 (UPI) -- A new population genetics study may have identified history's greatest lover, at least as measured in millions of descendants in his direct male line. This mighty progenitor was not a celebrated expert in the amorous arts like Casanova. Instead -- and this might say something about human nature that we'd rather not know -- he owed his lineage's staggering reproductive success to his being perhaps history's greatest fighter. The 23 co-authors of a paper published electronically by the American Journal of Human Genetics examined the Y-chromosomes of 2,123 men from across Asia. The Y...

Genghis Khan: Father to Millions? By Rossella Lorenzi, Discovery Newshttp://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20040621/gallery/genghis_goto.jpg> Statue of the Mongol Emperor June 22, 2004 —Genghis Khan left a legacy shared by 16 million people alive today, according to a book by a Oxford geneticist who identified the Mongol emperor as the most successful alpha male in human history. Regarded by the Mongolians as the father of their nation, Genghis Khan was born around 1162. A military and political genius, he united the tribes of Mongolia and conquered half of the known world with a cavalry riding on grass-fed ponies. By the time Genghis died in 1227,...

Genghis Khan's pen as mighty as his sword? August 23 2004 at 11:45AM Beijing - A Chinese historian says he has evidence that ruthless conqueror and master of the Mongol horde Genghis Khan was as masterful with the pen as he was with the sword. Historians have long assumed the ancient Mongolian ruler was illiterate, primarily because the Mongolian written language was created in the early 13th century, when Genghis Khan would have been in his 40s and not have had time to learn, the official Xinhua news agency said. However, Tengus Bayaryn, a professor at China's Inner Mongolia University,...

An ancient female skeleton discovered along the Tuul River, some 55 kilometers outside Ulaanbaatar, may be more remarkable for when she lived rather than who she was. After examining earrings and rings discovered amongst the remains, Kh. Lkhagvasuren, an archaeologist who heads the Mongolian Historical and Cultural Heritage Center, said this week that the woman was likely a contemporary of Chinggis Khaan... While an examination of the skeleton -- specifically the skull and waist -- revealed that it belonged to a teenage female, not much else is known about the young woman's life. The body was buried in a wooden...

Genghis Khan has been branded the greenest invader in history - after his murderous conquests killed so many people that huge swathes of cultivated land returned to forest. The Mongol leader, who established a vast empire between the 13th and 14th centuries, helped remove nearly 700million tons of carbon from the atmosphere, claims a new study. The deaths of 40 million people meant that large areas of cultivated land grew thick once again with trees, which absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Genghis Khan's Mongol invasion in the 13th and 14th centuries was so vast that it may have been the first instance in history of a single culture causing man-made climate change, according to new research out of the Carnegie Institution's Department of Global Ecology, reports Mongabay.com. Earn Points What's this? Comments (21) Email Facebook Twitter Stumble Digg Share Unlike modern day climate change, however, the Mongol invasion actually cooled the planet, effectively scrubbing around 700 million tons of carbon from the atmosphere. So how exactly did Genghis Khan, one of history's cruelest conquerors, earn such a glowing environmental report card?...

Genghis Khan's Mongol invasion in the 13th and 14th centuries was so vast that it may have been the first instance in history of a single culture causing man-made climate change, according to new research out of the Carnegie Institution's Department of Global Ecology, reports Mongabay.com. Unlike modern day climate change, however, the Mongol invasion cooled the planet, effectively scrubbing around 700 million tons of carbon from the atmosphere. So how did Genghis Khan, one of history's cruelest conquerors, earn such a glowing environmental report card? The reality may be a bit difficult for today's environmentalists to stomach, but Khan...

A study touting Genghis Khan's environmental record is being cheered by the team which produced Al Gore's movie, An Inconvenient Truth.  Genghis Khan's great accomplishment for the green cause?  Killing off 40 million humans so their un-tilled fields would be overtaken by forests.  While some may find genocide morally repugnant, environmentalists had a different concern:  Would reforestation be enough to overcome the greenhouse gases released by all those decaying bodies?  Julia Pongratz, who headed the Carnegie Institution's Department of Global Ecology research project from the Institution's Stanford University campus offices, provides the answer in a January 20 news release: We found that during the short...

Environmentalists have a new role model--Genghis Khan. According to this report in England's Daily Mail , Khan was a real greenie whose actions during his long career ultimately improved the atmosphere and reforested the land. But...but...some might sputter, he was an incredibly cruel, murdering invader--not an environmentalist! Uh, well yes on all counts; that's how he improved the environment. Genghis Khan has been branded the greenest invader in history - after his murderous conquests killed so many people that huge swathes of cultivated land returned to forest.The Mongol leader, who established a vast empire between the 13th and 14th...

Genghis Khan's Mongol invasion in the 13th and 14th centuries was so vast that it may have been the first instance in history of a single culture causing man-made climate change, according to new research out of the Carnegie Institution's Department of Global Ecology, reports Mongabay.com. Unlike modern day climate change, however, the Mongol invasion cooled the planet, effectively scrubbing around 700 million tons of carbon from the atmosphere. So how did Genghis Khan, one of history's cruelest conquerors, earn such a glowing environmental report card? The reality may be a bit difficult for today's environmentalists to stomach, but Khan...

For centuries historians and treasure seekers have searched for the burial site of history's most famous conqueror. New findings offer compelling evidence that it's been found. In the eight hundred years since his death, people have sought in vain for the grave of Genhis Khan, the 13th-century conqueror and imperial ruler who, at the time of his death, occupied the largest contiguous empire, stretching from the Caspian Sea to the Pacific. In capturing most of central Asia and China, his armies killed and pillaged but also forged new links between East and West. One of history’s most brilliant and ruthless...

Genghis Khan has been branded the greenest invader in history - after his murderous conquests killed so many people that huge swathes of cultivated land returned to forest. The Mongol leader, who established a vast empire between the 13th and 14th centuries, helped remove nearly 700 million tons of carbon from the atmosphere, claims a new study.

Gengis Khan basecamp found in China Chinese scholars have found a series of ancient wells they believe provided water for Genghis Khan's legendary hordes during their campaign in Western Xia. The find led them to conclude Genghis Khan did indeed march through the city of Ordos on his expedition into Western Xia. China's Xinhua news service said Monday more than 80 wells spaced 10 meters (33 feet) apart that were apparently used by the expedition's thousands of soldiers and horses. The wells are believed to be part of the "100 Wells" cited in the ancient classic history, "The Untold Story...

Published online: 24 October 2005Charlotte SchubertY chromosomes reveal founding fatherDid conquest and concubines spread one man's genes across Asia? The Manchu warriors took control of China in 1644. © Punchstock About 1.5 million men in northern China and Mongolia may be descended from a single man, according to a study based on Y chromosome genetics1. Historical records suggest that this man may be Giocangga, who lived in the mid-1500s and whose grandson founded the Qing dynasty, which ruled China from 1644 to 1912. The analysis is similar to a controversial study in 2003, which suggested that approximately 16 million men...