By the time of Genghis Khan's death in 1221, he had created an enormous empire that stretched from the Pacific Ocean to Ukraine.
This charismatic leader is buried. Does he have a tomb like the pyramids built for the ancient Egyptian pharaohs, or a mausoleum with terra–cotta warriors?
The location of Genghis Khan's tomb is not known and unlikely to be found in the near future. Experts tell Live Science that some people in Mongolia would prefer it not to be found.
William Honeychurch, an associate professor of anthropology at Yale University, said in an email that the tomb is very important to the people of Mongolia. He wouldn't say where the tomb might be found.
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The eastern Khentii province is where Genghis Khan was born. Nancy Steinhardt is a professor of East Asian art at the University of Pennsylvania's Penn Museum. She doesn't believe it will be found soon.
Most contemporary sources are silent on the location of Genghis Khan's tomb. There is no historical or archaeological record of the tomb's appearance. The researchers used satellite imagery to look for the tomb, but they did not find it.
Genghis Khan's tomb is not mentioned in "The Secret History of the Mongols," a record written by an anonymous person. He died in the year 12 27.
The text states that Genghis Khan was a big fan of the mountain. According to the text, Genghis used the mountain's terrain to escape from enemies. The text quotes Genghis Khan as saying "every morning I will sacrifice to Burkhan Khaldun, every day I will pray to it, the offspring of my offspring will be aware of this and do likewise!" The affinity that Genghis Khan had for this mountain has led to questions of whether he was buried there.
The Tanguts, a group of people in northwestern China, were campaigning against Genghis Khan and his army at the time of his death, and this may have made it difficult to bring his body back to his homeland. He may have been close to the modern-day frontier. The Mongols may have been forced to bury Genghis Khan in another country because they couldn't get his body toMongolian before it died. The Ordos region of northwestern China could be where Genghis Khan's remains are.
In his book The Travels of Marco Polo, the Venetian explorer said that 20,000 people who knew of the tomb's location were killed to keep it from being discovered. A writer named Rustichello da Pisa recorded Polo's stories in a book that was published around 1300.
Polo wrote decades after Genghis Khan had died. Modern-day historians debate the accuracy of Polo's other claims, such as that he was appointed an official by the grandson of Genghis Khan. Polo doesn't know if his account of Genghis Khan's tomb is true.
It was originally published on Live Science
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