Genghis Khan

Attribution: dvd3141

1162 - 1227

Founder of the Mongol Empire

Genghis Khan was the founder of the Mongol Empire - a massive conglomeratation of Central Asian and Chinese states that became the longest continually running empire in human history. He was born Temüjin in 1162 in a Mongol tribe near Burkhan Khaldun.

He rose to power in the Mongol tribe, founded the Mongol Empire and expanded it by leading successful raids on many regions and power centres, including the Kara-Khitan Khanate, Caucasus, Khwarezmid Empire and Western Xia and Jin dynasties of China. It was the beginning of what would be a long and bloody sequence of invasions by the Mongols stretching throughout the 13th century and into the 14th century. They resulted in an estimated death-toll of some 60 million people - the third largest death-toll by warfare in history.

He died in 1227 after defeating the Tanguts. His unmarked grave lies at an unknown spot somewhere in Mongolia. His kingdom was passed onto various sons and grandsons, who went on to stretch the Mongol Empire across most of Eurasia. Analysis of Y-chromosomal lineage suggests that at around 8% of the men in a large region of Asia - and about 0.5% of the men in the world - descend from Khan and his offspring, as a consequence of social selection.