For 30 years, Genghis Khan and his Mongolian horde swept through Asia, slaughtering over one-tenth of the people on Earth and conquering nearly one-quarter of the land. His was the most violent reign in all of human history.

Most people know Genghis Khan through the statistics, but the details are just as mind-boggling. Some stories from his life and his battles are outright unbelievable—and among the most brutal stories you will ever hear.

10 He Killed His Brother for Not Sharing His Food

Genghis Khan was born the son of a powerful chieftain, but his situation changed when an enemy tribe poisoned his father. The young boy and his family were cast out of their home and forced to scavenge for food, mostly eating plants and discarded carcasses they found on the roads.

When he was 14, Genghis Khan found a fish and brought it back to his family, only to have his half-brother Behter snatch it from his hands and refuse to share a bite with anyone else. Furious, Genghis Khan stalked his brother until he was alone—and murdered him with a bow and arrow.

Genghis Khan didn’t get away with his first murder completely, though. History reports that his mother “scolded” him, so he at least got a good talking-to about how, in this family, we don’t murder our siblings.

9 He Beheaded People for Being Over 90 Centimeters (3′) Tall

When Genghis Khan was 20, he led an army against the tribe that killed his father and got his revenge. The Tatar army was crushed, and Genghis Khan set about exterminating the people in an incredibly unusual way.

Every Tatar man was lined up and measured against “the linchpin of a wagon,” which is the axle pin in the middle of the wheel. Anyone taller than these pins—which were 90 centimeters (3′) high—was to be beheaded.

In effect, Genghis Khan’s order slaughtered every male Tatar but the infants.

8 His Victims’ Bones Were Mistaken for Mountains

In 1211, Genghis Khan turned his focus to modern-day China and attacked the Jin Empire. It was a reckless decision. The Jin Empire controlled 53 million people, and the Mongols had one million. Still, Genghis Khan won.

Within three years, the Mongols had made their way to Zhongdu (now Beijing). The city walls were 12 meters (39 ft) high and stretched 29 kilometers (18 mi) around the city. It seemed impossible to get in, so they didn’t try.

Instead, the Mongols starved Zhongdu out. By summer 1215, the people there were so hungry that cannibalism was running rampant inside its walls. Finally, they surrendered, and the Mongols sacked and burned the city.

The massacre was horrific. Months later, a passing eyewitness wrote that “the bones of the slaughtered formed white mountains and that the soil was still greasy with human fat.”

7 An Enemy Archer Shot Genghis Khan, So He Made the Archer a General

While at war with the Mongolian Tayichigud clan, Genghis Khan’s horse was hit. An arrow sailed into the animal’s spine, and the horse fell beneath the warlord’s legs, nearly killing him in the process.

His army marched on and won the battle, and Genghis Khan went out for revenge. He demanded to know who had fired the arrow. He didn’t expect anyone to confess, so he was probably looking for an excuse for another genocide.

But the archer Jebe stepped forward, confessed to the deed, and told Genghis Khan to kill him if he wanted to. Genghis Khan was impressed, so he made Jebe a commander in his army.

Jebe later rose to be a general and one of Genghis Khan’s most trusted friends—all as a reward for nearly killing him.

6 He Made His Allies Marry His Daughters and Then Got Them Killed

One of the biggest ways Genghis Khan seized power was by marrying off his daughters to the kings of his allies. When Genghis Khan was behind it, though, even marriage was a death sentence.

For the privilege of marrying one of Genghis Khan’s daughters, the kings were required to cast out every other wife they had. This wasn’t because he was dedicated to monogamy. It was to make sure that his daughters were the only people in line for the throne.

The kings were then sent to the front lines of the Mongolian army. Almost everyone died in combat, and his daughters took over their kingdoms. By the time of Genghis Khan’s death, his daughters ruled an area stretching from China’s Yellow Sea to Iran’s Caspian Sea.

5 He Exterminated 1.7 Million People to Avenge One Person

The marriages might have been strategic alliances, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t any love involved. One of Genghis Khan’s daughters loved her husband, a man name Toquchar. Genghis Khan loved him, too, as his favorite son-in-law.

When Toquchar was killed by an archer from Nishapur, his wife demanded vengeance. Genghis Khan’s troops attacked Nishapur and slaughtered every person there. By some estimates, 1,748,000 people were killed. Other historians dispute that number, but there’s no doubt that his armies killed everyone they found.

Women, children, babies, and even dogs and cats were tracked down and murdered. Then they were beheaded, and their skulls were piled into pyramids—a request by Genghis Khan’s daughter to ensure that no one got away with a simple wounding.

4 The Mongols Had a Victory Feast on Top of the Russian Nobility

In 1223, the Mongolian army was making its way through Russia and had just won the Battle of the Kalka River. The Russian army had surrendered, their towns had been captured, and the Mongolians decided to celebrate.

The generals and nobility of the Russian army were forced to lie down on the ground. Then a heavy wooden gate was thrown on top of them, chairs and tables were set on top of the gate, and the army sat down for a feast.

They held their victory celebration on top of the still-living bodies of their enemies, eating and drinking while Russian princes were crushed to death beneath their feet.

3 He Diverted a River Through an Enemy’s Birthplace to Erase It off the Map

When Genghis Khan found the Muslim kingdom of Khwarezmia, he did something unusual: He took the peaceful route. A group of diplomats was sent to the city, hoping to establish a trade route and diplomatic ties.

The governor of Khwarezmia, though, didn’t trust them. He thought the diplomats were part of a Mongolian conspiracy and had them executed. He killed the next group they sent, too.

Genghis Khan was furious. He had tried to be nice, and he’d been repaid with dead diplomats. He set up an army of 200,000 soldiers, attacked, and completely destroyed Khwarezmia.

Even after he’d won, Khan sent two armies to burn down every castle, town, and farm they found to ensure that no hint of Khwarezmia survived. According to one story, he even diverted a river to run through the emperor’s birthplace, just to make sure it would never appear on a map again.

2 He Nearly Erased a Kingdom From History for Not Sending Troops

When Genghis Khan attacked Khwarezmia, he asked the conquered kingdom of Xi Xia to send him troops. They refused. Xi Xia tried to take a bold stand against their oppressor, and they quickly regretted it. The Mongolian army swarmed through Xi Xia, destroying everything that they found. They systematically exterminated every member of the population.

By the end, Xi Xia was erased from history. They hadn’t written down their own stories, so the only records of their existence came from neighboring countries. Their language wasn’t recovered for more than 700 years. It took until the mid-20th century for archaeologists to unearth stones that had their writing on them. In the meantime, every word they had spoken was forgotten.

Genghis Khan died during the battle, most likely from being thrown from his horse. Still, the Mongolian army carried out his work. They slaughtered every person they found, even after their leader was dead and their enemy had surrendered.

1 Everyone Involved In Burying Him Was Killed

When Genghis Khan died, he wanted to be buried where no one could find his corpse. In honor of his wishes, his body was carried miles into the wilderness by a group of slaves escorted by soldiers.

The slaves buried Genghis Khan in a place no one would ever find. To make sure the slaves would never divulge the secret, the warriors massacred them and threw them into the grave. Then the soldiers rode their horses over it and planted trees on top of it to hide the spot.

When the warriors who buried him made their way back to camp, they were promptly slaughtered as well, just to make sure they would never talk. And so Genghis Khan died in a massacre like the ones that pervaded his life, hidden away in a tomb that has yet to be found.

Genghis Kahn and his Mongolian hordes swept through Asia, slaughtering and conquering a huge part of the world. No army could stand in their way. By the time their conquests had ended, they had wiped out a tenth of the world’s population.

It took an intense and brutal army to pull it off. Fighters in the Mongolian army did not have the option to be weak. Life, in a Mongolian horde, meant giving up even the most basic of comforts and doing some absolutely horrifying things.

10Mongolians Never Cleaned Their Clothes

The Mongolians of Genghis Khan’s time believed that contaminating water would anger the dragons that controlled its cycle. They feared that, if they dirtied the water, the gods would send a storm to destroy their homes—and so they did not wash anything.

Bathing in running water or washing your clothes was prohibited. Most of the Mongolian fighters would not even change their clothes. At most, they would beat their coats to get the lice out and put them right back on. They would wear the same thing, day after day, until it literally rotted off and could not be worn anymore.

They did not wash the dishes in water, either. Instead, they would wash their plates in the left-over broth from the last meal. Then they would pour the used broth back into the pot and cook their next meal in it.

It was smelly—but they took pride in that. There was a power to their stench. It would be considered an honor if a great Khan gave someone his cloak, not just because he had his clothes, but because he could now carry the Khan’s stench.

9They Learned to Ride Horses When They Were Three

As soon as a Mongolian could walk, they learned to ride. Every family had a horse, whether they were wealthy or poor, soldiers or farmers. Even shepherds would take care of their flocks on horseback. They had to get ready young—so they started when they were three years old.

The Mongolians had custom saddles made for children, designed with a few extra safety features to make sure they did not get hurt. They wanted their kids to start practicing as soon as possible. It made a huge difference. When Europeans saw them, they wrote back that the little girls in Mongolia were better horse riders than most European men.

The kids learned archery, too. As soon as they started riding, they were given tiny bows and taught to shoot. For a Mongolian in the time of the great Khans, riding a horse and shooting a bow were as essential as learning to walk.

8They Drank Blood from a Vein Cut in Their Horses’ Necks

The Mongolian army covered incredible distances. In a single day, they could travel 80 miles (129 km), a distance that, in their time, was completely unheard of. It took intense and vicious riding to do it, and they did not have time to stop for food.

To make the journey possible, they would put raw meat on their horses’ backs. It is believed that this was to tenderize the meat, so they could eat it on the go, although that is debated. Some now believe that the meat was for the horse, meant to help heal their sores while they pushed through incredible treks.

Marco Polo claimed that these warriors would ride for ten days straight without stopping long enough to make a fire. When they got thirsty, they would pierce a hole in the necks of their horses and drink the blood that came squirting out.

The horses helped them get drunk, too. They would ride female horses whenever possible and would milk them when they stopped. Then they would take that milk with them, letting it ferment into liquor for the road.

7They Cut Open Animals’ Chests to Butcher Them

Mongolians barely ate vegetables. From time to time, they would gather a few wild plants or eat some food that had been offered to them by a surrendering army, but they mostly relied on meat and dairy.

Their diet was, essentially, the exact opposite of veganism—and the way they prepared it was the exact opposite of kosher. When they wanted to butcher an animal, they would tie the animal down, jam a knife into its chest, and cut it open. Then they would reach in, grab its heart and squeeze to fill the carcass up with blood.

They would tear out all of its internal organs and cook them up. Every part of the animal’s body would be put to use, usually boiled in a pot of broth, but, on special occasions, cooked on a skewer. The blood would be drained out of the body and worked into sausages.

Usually, they ate mutton, but they would eat horses when they could. Horses were usually saved for special occasions, but they ate whatever horse meat they could. According to one missionary who went to Mongolia, they would even eat the afterbirth of mares.

6A Mongolian Man Could have 30 Wives

The Mongolians were strict about extra-marital sex. If a man was caught with a married woman, he could have his lips cut off. If they were in bed together, he could be killed. And if he was caught with an unmarried virgin, both the man and the woman would be put to death.

As long as you married them, though, a man could have as many women as he wanted—or, more accurately, as many as he could afford. He would have to pay a dowry for each one, and he would be expected to provide her with her own tent to live in. Some Mongolian men had thirty wives, and the Khans had hundreds.

The women just accepted that this was how life was. It is claimed that, after some men spent the night with his wife, he would invite in all of this other wives to share a drink together.

5The Youngest Son Inherited His Father’s Wives

When a Mongolian’s life came to an end, they made sure that his wives were taken care of. His land and his possession were divided up among his sons, with the best bounty going to the youngest. He would get his father’s home, his slaves, and also his wives.

The boy would not be expected to marry his own mother, but he would be expected to provide for all of his father’s other wives. And while there were no rules saying he had to, he was allowed to take them as his own. It was not uncommon for a young man who had lost his father to make his stepmothers his wives and bring them into his tent.

4They Used Psychological Warfare

One of the main ways the Mongolians became such effective killers was by using psychology. They could not have conquered so many nations by fighting alone—they needed to get as many as possible to surrender without having to waste the life of their men.

No matter the circumstances, they would hide their numbers. If the opposing army was bigger than theirs, they would put dummies on spare horses or light extra campfires to seem more imposing. If their army was bigger, they would ride their horses in single-file, with branches tied to their tails to mask them in a cloud of dust.

They were experts at scaring people. They would travel with their yurts, tents that they could set up before a siege as portable homes. In at least one case, they used the colors of these tents to terrify the people within a city’s walls. First, they put up white tents, telling them that if they surrendered now they would be spared. If they did not surrender, they would put up red tents, telling them that only the men would be killed. If the people were still not ready to fight, they would put up black tents, telling them that everyone inside would die.

3They Massacred Whole Cities

The key to their psychological terror was their reputation for brutality. They needed their enemies to believe that if they did not surrender, every person in the city would be horribly killed. They did not use any tricks to get that reputation—they really did it.

If a city did not surrender, the Mongolian horde would massacre every single person inside. They rounded up the women and children and slaughtered them all. Sometimes they even rounded up the cats and the dogs and killed them for good measure. Their heads would be removed and they would make a pyramid of their skulls to let anyone who passed by know what happened if you angered a Khan.

The most horrible thing was what they did to pregnant women. According to an Arabian writer, the Mongolians would not stop at killing them. They would rip open her stomach and kill the unborn baby inside of her.

2They Had to Kill Nobles without Spilling Blood

The Mongolians believed that blood contained a person’s spiritual essence. They did not dare spill the blood of a nobleman, believing it would defile the ground on which it fell. So, when they killed royalty, they had to find other ways to do it.

Usually, noblemen would be suffocated or drowned. If a member of the Khan’s family betrayed him, he would usually be rolled up in a carpet and thrown in a body of water. Sometimes, though, they got creative. Guyuk Khan took care of one of his rivals by sewing every orifice on her body shut and pushing her into a river.

They had to get creative with enemy nobles, as well. In one case, they trapped Russian princes under a board and held a feast on top of them to suffocate them without spilling their blood. In another, Genghis Khan had a man killed by pouring molten silver into his eyes.

1They Catapulted Diseased Bodies over City Walls

The Mongolian army might have been the first to use biological warfare. While they swept into Europe, they were hit by the Black Plague—and they decided to use it to their advantage.

Their enemies had holed up inside of the city of Caffa, where the Mongolians had them surrounded. When the Black Plague started killing their people, though, they realized they could not stay forever. They wanted to make the biggest impact they could before they left—so they threw their dead over the city walls.

Any Mongolian who died of plague was put on a catapult and sent flying over the walls. On the other side, the people tried to get rid of these bodies by throwing them into the sea, but this just tainted their water supply. Soon, the plague had spread throughout the city.

A few people fled over the city walls and ran further west, but it was too late for them. They were already carrying the plague, and, as they ran out westward, they spread it through Europe.

Mark Oliver is a regular contributor to . He writing also appears on a number of other sites, including The Onion’s StarWipe and Cracked.com. His website is regularly updated with everything he writes.

The name Genghis Khan is known the world over. His Mongol horde conquered half the world. His empire encompassed everywhere between the Caspian Sea and the Pacific Ocean and covered an astonishing 23 million square kilometers (9 million mi²), making it the largest contiguous empire ever. Genghis Khan managed to conquer more land in his 25 years of pillaging than the entire Roman Empire captured in 400 years.

His army was certainly ferocious. Soldiers of the defeated armies were not destined for a happy end. They were often beheaded, disemboweled, or occasionally even forced to swallow molten metal. Whole cities were razed, and prisoners were slain or made to march in front of the army to act as a shield.

However, though his name is now synonymous with barbarity, Genghis Khan was a leader with some surprising qualities.

10 He Was Modest

Genghis Khan was a personally modest man. He did not build monuments to his achievements. Even in death, he wanted to remain humble. Other men in his position might have built themselves elaborate memorials as the pharaohs did in Egypt. Genghis, however, decreed that he should be buried in a secret place in an unmarked grave.

After his death, his faithful army honored his wishes. They carried his body home, killing anyone they met along the way so that those individuals could not disclose the location. Genghis’s men dug the grave somewhere in the remote mountains of Mongolia or perhaps in the wide plains, depending on whom you believe. Then they rode a thousand horses over and over the grave to tamp down the earth and disguise the location.

After Genghis’s burial, the slaves who dug the grave were said to have been slaughtered and his soldiers planted a grove of trees over the burial site. When the army returned home, they were killed by their comrades to prevent them from revealing the site of Genghis’s remains.

Today, archaeologists and treasure hunters still seek the grave, hoping to find the final resting place of the great Mongol leader and, just possibly, the hoard of treasure that was rumored to be buried with him.^[1]

9 He Instituted A Writing System In Mongolia

In 1204, Genghis Khan instituted a writing system in Mongolia known as Uighur Script, which has been in continuous use up to the present day. The script was adopted from the Uighur tribes who had been conquered by the Mongol Army.

Genghis showed great foresight in this and demonstrated one of his greatest strengths. When he conquered another tribe, he absorbed their customs and practices into his own, particularly if their systems were superior to his own. In this, he showed much more wisdom than most conquering nations who merely wiped out the previous culture without consideration.

Genghis Khan attached great importance to the ability to read and write. He instructed that all children of the Mongol Empire be taught to read and that all the laws of the empire be written down.^[2]

However, it is likely that Khan himself was not able to read and he delegated this task to his trusted commanders.

8 He Ran The Mongol Empire As A Meritocracy

Genghis Khan had a disparate number of tribes and conquered peoples under his control. Most conquering nations have found keeping order among the indigenous populations difficult, and much military manpower is spent quelling unrest and imposing the new order.

Genghis chose a different method. He ran the Mongol Empire as a strict meritocracy. He is quoted as saying, “A leader cannot be happy if his people are not happy.”

Positions were filled with reference only to the abilities of the candidates. Promotions in the armies were based on abilities and provable results. Even within his own family, he adopted the same processes. On his deathbed, he tasked his advisers with nominating his successors (admittedly from his own family) based only on their ability to succeed.^[3]

7 He Rebuilt The Silk Road

The Silk Road is the name given to the trade route which ran overland through China, India, and Southeast Asia to the lucrative markets of Europe. It had fallen into disuse because it was so dangerous. The wide expanses that traders had to cross were a haven for brigands.

Under Genghis Khan’s rule, the whole Silk Road trade route fell under his control—a distance of over 7,000 kilometers (4,300 mi). The period after his conquest of the area became known as Pax Mongolica, a period of calm and stability which enabled traders to pass unhindered along the route.

The trade caravans transported silk and other precious items, such as pearls, gems, spices, precious metals, carpets, and medicines. In addition, the local economies prospered by providing refreshments for the travelers. This was organized by the Mongol authorities.

The Silk Road became so safe that it was said that “a maiden laden with gold could travel it and go unmolested.”^[4]

6 He Developed A Strict Code Of Law

The popular view of the Mongol horde is that of an unregulated band of ruffians raping and pillaging at will. In fact, the Mongol society was generally a very ordered and law-abiding one when it wasn’t out conquering. Genghis had a Yasak, or code of law, drawn up which detailed the behavior expected of its citizens and the punishment for those who broke the rules.

Every citizen of the Mongol Empire was expected to abide by these rules, including Genghis himself. Uniquely, for the time period, Genghis did not claim any divine authority for these laws but only the authority of his power.

Among the forbidden practices were kidnapping, animal rustling, stealing, and, perhaps surprisingly, slavery (though only for fellow Mongols). Other decrees included raising the minimum age of service in the army to 20 years old. Also, no one was to be considered guilty of a crime unless he was actually caught in the act or confessed of his own accord.

On his deathbed, Genghis Khan is believed to have said of his followers: “If they depart from my Yasak, the realm will rock and crumble.” This seems to have been something of a prophecy because his empire was completely destroyed within 150 years and no copies of the Yasak remain.^[5]

5 He Looked After His Army

The welfare of his troops was said to be a particular concern for Genghis Khan. Supposedly, he said of them, “I want to feed them with juicy meat, let them live in beautiful yurts, and let them pasture their livestock on rich soil.”

If a soldier was lost through the neglect of his commander, then the commander was punished. And if a wounded soldier was left on the battlefield, his commander would be executed on the spot. All of this led officers in the army to go to great lengths to ensure the well-being of the men under their command. The army worked on a system of mutual loyalty which was so powerful that it allowed them to conquer the world.^[6]

Soldiers in the Mongol army were not paid. Instead, they received an equal share of the spoils of war. This ensured that all the troops had a vested interest in victory. If a soldier died in battle, his share of the spoils was passed on to his family so that they were provided for.

4 He Supported Women’s Rights

For the period, Genghis Khan was quite a champion of women’s rights. For the period.

Women of Mongolia were certainly much freer than their neighbors in China or Persia. They were able to ride horses, fight in battles, tend farms, and participate in the politics of the day.

Though most women still had fewer rights than men, some women wielded great influence in the Mongol Empire. Women held public office and took major roles in the administration of the empire.^[7]

The kidnapping of wives was specifically prohibited by law (Genghis Khan’s wife had been kidnapped), as was the practice of selling women into marriage against their will.

While it would be quite a stretch to call Khan a feminist, it is certain that women enjoyed more rights and greater safety under the Mongol Empire than they might have experienced anywhere else in the world at that time.

3 He Promoted Religious Freedom

Genghis Khan was a Shamanist, as were most Mongols at that time. Nevertheless, he promoted tolerance of all religions within his empire. He exempted religious leaders of all denominations from paying taxes and encouraged citizens to practice their chosen religions freely.

He invited religious leaders to meet him for interfaith discussions and was interested in hearing their beliefs. He deliberately chose advisers with a wide variety of religious backgrounds.^[8]

His empire was so vast that it was comprised of followers of a large number of religions, including Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Jews, and Christians. They were all allowed to practice their religions without interference from the Mongol state.

2 He Sorted The Post

Perhaps one of Genghis Khan’s more surprising accomplishments was the establishment of an organized postal system across his empire. Postal stations were set up for the delivery of official mail, but they were also available for citizens, soldiers, and visitors to use.

The postal systems aided the economy, facilitated the transport of goods along the Silk Road, and improved the quality and reliability of information sharing. Postal stations were arranged 24 kilometers (15 mi) or so apart. Couriers moved between stations and were provided with food and shelter when they arrived.^[9]

Foreign observers, such as Marco Polo, marveled at the efficiency of the system. By the end of Mongol rule, there were thousands of postal stations with tens of thousands of horses and couriers at their disposal.

1 He Was A Lover As Well As A Fighter

Though Genghis Khan is noted for his military might and undoubted strength as an empire builder, his longest-lasting legacy is as a lover rather than a fighter. And recent findings by DNA researchers suggest that Genghis was quite some lover. It is estimated that there are 16 million men in Central Asia alone who are descendants of the Mongol emperor.^[10]

Genghis Khan was known to have had many wives and to have “courted” many more women. After the Mongol horde had taken a town, Genghis was given his pick of the most beautiful women and it seems that he took full advantage of this “perk of the job.” His sons and grandsons were equally as fertile. One of his grandsons had 22 legitimate wives and added 30 virgins a year to his harem.

Though the physical Mongol Empire has long since disappeared, it seems that Genghis Khan may have found a different means of taking over the world.

Ward Hazell is a writer who travels and an occasional travel writer