Burial place of Genghis Khan

The location of the burial place of Genghis Khan (who died August 1227) has been the subject of much speculation and research. The site remains undiscovered, although it is generally believed that it is near the sacred mountain of Burkhan Khaldun in the Khentii Mountains. The Genghis Khan Mausoleum in modern-day Inner Mongolia is not his burial site.

Historical accounts

According to legend, Genghis Khan asked to be buried without markings or any sign, and after he died, his body was returned to present-day Mongolia.

The Secret History of the Mongols has the year of Genghis Khan's death (1227) but no information concerning his burial. Marco Polo wrote that, even by the late 13th century, the Mongols did not know the location of the tomb. According to The Travels of Marco Polo, "It has been an invariable custom, that all the grand khans, and chiefs of the race of Genghis-khan, should be carried for interment to a certain lofty mountain named Altai, and in whatever place they may happen to die, although it should be at the distance of a hundred days' journey, they are nevertheless conveyed thither."

In a frequently recounted tale, Marco Polo tells that the 2,000 slaves that attended to Genghis Khan's funeral were killed by the soldiers sent to guard them, and that these soldiers were in turn killed by another group of soldiers which killed anyone and anything that crossed their path, in order to conceal where Genghis was buried. Finally, the legend states that once these soldiers reached their destination they committed suicide. This tale does not appear in contemporaneous sources, however.