The Lost Tomb of Genghis Khan

The death of Genghis Khan is shrouded in secrecy. The Great Khan died in the summer of 1227, during a campaign against the Tanguts, along the upper reaches of the Yellow River, in Yinchuan. But the manner of his death is unknown. It is reasonable to believe that he died of injuries sustained during the battle. It is also reasonable to believe that those wounds came not from an enemy arrow, as asserted by Marco Polo, but from falling off his horse during hunting, according to The Secret History of the Mongols— a semi-mythical genealogy of Genghis Khan written sometime after his death. It is unreasonable to believe that Genghis Khan died of bleeding when a crafty Western Xia princess, that the Mongols had carried off as war booty, inserted a contraption into her vagina so that when Genghis Khan came to sleep with her, it tore off his organs. That particular story, some Mongol scholars believe, was created by the Khan’s enemies to vilify him. The secrecy surrounding the death of Genghis Khan invited speculation and later inspired so many apocryphal tales that it’s difficult to separate truth from fiction. Long before his death, Genghis Khan is said to have wished to be buried in an unmarked grave in the mountains of Burkhan Khaldun. According to The Secret History of the Mongols , Genghis Khan was hunting near the Burkhan Khaldun mountain in the Khentii Mountains of his homeland, when he sat down to rest under a tree, and was so overcame by the beauty of the landscape before him that he asked to be buried in the mountains. Burkhan Khaldun holds another significance in the life of Genghis Khan. Once while fighting against the Merkit tribes, Genghis Khan narrowly escaped death and fled to the sacred precincts of the Burkhan Khaldun mountains where he was given shelter by an old woman. He pledged at that time to honor the mountain from then on with sacrifices and prayer every morning.