To date, researchers have yet to uncover the location of Genghis Khan’s tomb or the cause of his death.
The death of Genghis Khan is shrouded in mystery. He passed away in the summer of 1227 during a campaign against the Western Xia along the upper reaches of the Yellow River in present-day Ningxia. However, the circumstances of his death remain unclear. One theory posits that he died from injuries sustained in battle with his enemies, as recorded by Marco Polo, while another suggests he fell from his horse during a hunting trip, according to the Secret History of the Mongols (a later work about the Mongolian royal family). The mystery surrounding Genghis Khan’s death has sparked so much speculation that it is challenging to distinguish between fact and fiction, as noted by IFL Science.
Portrait of Genghis Khan. (Image: Wikipedia).
Long before his death, Genghis Khan expressed a desire to be buried in an unmarked grave on Burkhan Khaldun Mountain. According to the Secret History of the Mongols, while hunting near Burkhan Khaldun in the Khentii range, Genghis Khan sat down under a tree, overwhelmed by the beautiful scenery, and requested to be buried on the mountain. Burkhan Khaldun held significant importance in Genghis Khan’s life; during a battle against the Merkit tribe, he narrowly escaped death and fled to Burkhan Khaldun, where he was sheltered by an elderly woman.
After his death, his body was escorted home by soldiers and buried as per his wishes in an unmarked grave at the heart of Burkhan Khaldun. No markers such as a tomb, shrine, or gravestone were placed to indicate his burial site, leaving no one aware of where Genghis Khan rests. When the explorer Marco Polo visited the region in the late 13th century, no Mongolian he asked knew the location of Genghis Khan’s burial.
Shortly after his burial, soldiers cordoned off an area of over 620 square kilometers and referred to it as Ikh Khorig or “The Forbidden Zone.” This area, difficult to access due to a series of mountains covered by dense forests, became sacred, limiting access to only family members and the Darkhad, a group of commanders and their families tasked with ensuring no one intruded. The penalty for trespassing was death. The Darkhad and their descendants continued this duty even after the Mongol Empire’s collapse.
In the 1990s, a Japanese-Mongolian expedition named Gurvan Gol (Three Rivers) was conducted to search for the tomb. Using ultrasound methods, they identified 1,380 potential burial sites, but further research was hampered by intense protests from local residents. Today, Burkhan Khaldun is a UNESCO World Heritage site, making archaeological work even more challenging.
Due to restricted access, some researchers turned to satellite imagery. In 2010, a research team led by Albert Yu-Min Lin, a scientist at the University of California, San Diego, enlisted online volunteers to examine thousands of high-resolution satellite images of Mongolia for signs of the tomb. The challenge was that the research team did not know what signs to look for, so volunteers were asked to pay attention to anything unusual.
In just six months, over ten thousand volunteers marked two million locations, and the research team narrowed it down to 100 sites. A field team explored these locations, identifying 55 places of archaeological and cultural significance. However, none of these sites contained Genghis Khan’s tomb.
