In Mongolia, 800 Years After His
Death, Genghis Khan Still Rocks

  ULAANBAATAR, Mongolia – In the land of Genghis Khan, it’s only fitting when you fly into the Mongolian capital you land at Genghis Khan International Airport. When you enter the city it’s usually by its main street, Genghis Khan Avenue.

  If vodka is your spirit of choice, Genghis Khan is the country’s leading brand. Thirsty for a beer? Have yourself an ice-cold Genghis Khan.

  So, it was a no brainer that if I wanted to know about the man and his past, I needed to visit the Genghis Khan Museum, a magnificent nine-story, 220,00 square foot structure in the heart of the downtown that opened in 2019. The museum features 15 exhibition halls housing up to 12,000 artifacts, enough to scramble the brain of even the most ardent history buff. On the top floor, in a setting akin to Washington’s Lincoln Memorial, a gold statue of the man himself, rising 24 imposing feet, sits on his throne. Crafted in Italy and costing $2.5 million, it was dedicated in March.

  I wasn’t there to tour the museum. Rather, I had an appointment with Ganbold “Byambaa” Byambaragchaa, the museum’s newly appointed director of research. I wanted to sort out fact from fiction about one of the world’s most infamous – and influential - rulers and hoped he would be my guide.

The Rise of Khan

  First, some background. Khan – known as Chinggis Khaan here – was born in 1162 in northeast Mongolia’s Khentii Mountains. His given name was Temüjinand his father was a tribal chieftain. But his father’s death, when Khan was 8, led to the family’s expulsion from the tribe and plunged the family into poverty. At 14, Khan assumed control of his family when he allegedly killed his older half-brother Bector in a dispute over food, foreshadowing his future as a warrior of frightening regard.

  As an adult, Khan’s leadership and organizational skills were elite. His first great achievement was somehow uniting all of the nomadic tribes from the harsh Mongolian plateau region under his command.  That army, utilizing innovative warfare methods and logistics developed by Khan and his generals, began a conquering campaign of Eurasia the likes of which had never been seen.

  By the time he died in 1227, Mongolia, led by Khan’s descendants, was on its way to becoming the largest contiguous empire in history, controlling an area about the size of Africa.

  That legacy helps explain why Khan’s so revered here. In sports terminology, Mongolia was No. 1 for 140 years - its only shot at being a world power.

  Khan’s vanquished foes, of course, have a different memory of his conquests, contending that his troops butchered millions along the way. That history has largely prevailed over the past eight centuries, with just a mention of the name Genghis Khan conjuring up images of a menacing, battle-ready villain on horseback.

Khan’s Legacy Revisited

  Byambaa, the museum researcher, has a different viewpoint. Beginning in the 1970s, he said, historians broadened their perspective of Khan. In part, this involved questioning the veracity of the number of deaths, which some felt likely was exaggerated by the countries he defeated.

  Overlooked and understated were his many accomplishments and his benevolent leadership, according to Byambaa.

  “The result of all the new research is that the word ‘conqueror’ is no longer used when describing Genghis Khan. But rather he was the leader of the Mongolian empire and the creator of the modern world,” he said.

  To his point, Byambaa said that in 1220 Khan created Karakorum, a new capital for his expanding empire which was more centrally located and had a better climate.

  There, religious freedom, unheard of in those times, was encouraged. Women’s rights, mostly a non-factor in other cultures, were endorsed. Wives could divorce their husbands, own property and even held leadership positions in government and in the Mongolian army.

  Khan also supported a merit-based system for advancement in his army rather than the traditional familial promotions. As a result, some of his most accomplished generals came from lower classes or the armies of defeated foes.

  In a similar vein, according to Byambaa, Khan organized his army into units of 10, 100, 1,000 and 10,000, blending various tribes in a system that upgraded command and control as well as improved battlefield tactics.

  Maybe Khan’s most impressive innovation was the creation of an information system utilizing skilled Mongolian horsemen and an elite breed of animals trained to cover long distances.

  “They could quickly pass on information from Khan and his generals to the troops in far-away places,” said Byambaa, describing an early version of the Pony Express.

Dream Job

  I asked him what drew his interest to Khan. He said he was raised in a home in western Mongolian where books and reading were an integral part of his life. His father is a former politician and math teacher; his mother, a literature and Mongolian language instructor.

  The pivotal moment came in his early teens when he read “The Secret History of Mongolia,” the oldest surviving book in the Mongolian language. It detailed Khan’s life and military escapades.

  “I read it four times,” Byambaa said.

  The book, which wasn’t translated into English until 1982, has played a major role in the revisionist history of Khan.

  “They call it a secret history because it has the history of the Khan family and its bloodlines,” Byambaa said. “Although the author is unknown it’s believed a son or grandson wrote the book.”

  At 39, he’s lean and fit. A love of horseback riding, a way of life here, and hiking in the countryside keeps him in shape.  He has multiple degrees in anthropology. His initial work involved studying the impact of Mongolia’s mining industry on nomadic families.

  All the while, his research on Khan had been more of a hobby. But after earning his PhD in 2024, he spent two months this year at the University of Cambridge in England. There he joined a research team that will begin examining the buried history of Khan in Central Asian countries such as Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, all formerly attached to Russia.

  “These are basically new countries trying to discover their past,” Byambaa said. “Of course, Genghis Khan was once their king so it’s important for them to know the history.”

  It was this project that earned him the job at the museum, which he started in July. When the discussion turned to his new position, his calm demeanor gave way to obvious excitement.

  “I feel like I’m in a fantasy world, traveling back through time trying to understand the history and dreams of my people,” he said.

The Khan Seed

  Moving on to a juicier topic, I asked Byambaa his opinion on the results from a scientific study completed in 2003 that claimed it found Khan’s DNA present in around 16 million men alive at the time. That news, if accurate, cements his position as likely the most genetically prolific man in history.

  Byambaa disputed the findings.

  Khan, he said, had one queen - his first wife Börte - with whom he had four sons. He had three additional wives, which produced an undetermined number of children. After that, he had mistresses and liaisons with who knows how many women procured from his military victories and political alliances.

  “There is no proof of the number of concubines and number of women and number of children produced,” Byambaa said. “The only ones that counted by law were the four sons with the queen who would continue the bloodline of the king.”

  With that, our interview ended.

  I walked out of the Genghis Khan Museum and flagged a taxi on Genghis Khan Avenue. We passed the Government Palace where another massive statue of Khan sits.

  If Khan were around, he’d likely be unhappy his empire no longer exists. But maybe he would be pleased that his legacy among his people, where it matters most, is firmly intact.

  The day was warm and sunny. A Genghis Khan brewski sounded good.

Editor’s note: Second in a series from a reporting trip to Mongolia July 27-August 2, 2025

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Reported and written by: George J. Tanber

Edited by: Michael Gordon

Photo editor: David Kozy