Still at the Houston Museum of Natural Science ...
While there, we also saw the exhibit on Genghis Khan, which was fascinating as well.
This guy was truly larger than life. In a mere 25 years, his Mongol army conquered more lands and people than the Romans had in 400 years - twice as much as any other man in history, all with an army of no more than 100,000 warriors. This page has a fascinating short history of his life.
He was not only a fighter, but a lover as well. Get this ... 0.5% of the male population in the world (and 8% of the men living in the region of the former Mongol empire) - about 16,000,000 men - are his direct descendants. The guy sure got around!
Barbarian? Not necessarily. His code had an innocent-until-proven-guilty legal principle, as well as laws allowing religious freedom and freedom of speech. Of course, he was brutal. He was a conqueror, after all.
And he was illiterate.
______________
If you enjoyed this post, you might enjoy Last Stop ... Terra Cotta Warriors
Photo of Genghis Khan from the Denver Museum of Natural Science
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment