Worst genocides in history

Chinggis sips, remnants of the drink dotting his moustache and beard, and after he swallows, he grimaces and bangs his fist on the arm of his throne. His attendants recoil, as this is clearly among their final moments. But wait, Chinggis takes another sip, licks the white drippings from his moustache, and asks in a more cheerful, curious tone what he has drunk.

Gaza genocide

There is no greater figure in Mongolia than Chinggis Khan. His life, his aura, his very name permeates much in modern Mongolia. Chinggis, Chinggis, Chinggis. His name develops into a mantra after a while, and you almost feel as if the man has been born again, resurrected in name if not in spirit. The biological, cultural and political legacy of Chinggis Khan is astounding.

Sixteen million men alive today can claim direct descent from the Great Khan. Within the borders of what was his empire, that number leaps to eight percent. At the pinnacle of the empire he began, Mongol influence spread from Korea to Hungary, from Russia down to Vietnam, the largest contiguous land empire in human history. Quite literally, the world we live in today would be dramatically different had Chinggis Khan never been born.

Yet the influence he wields on a world stage is nothing compared to his influence within the borders of Mongolia, where the man holds a mythic, quasi god-like appeal to the 2. Not a bad legacy for a boy whose father was killed when he was eight, and whose family was left to fend for themselves on the harsh steppe of eastern Mongolia. The hill is a slight bump on the ubiquitous steppe grass that unfurls over the land like an emerald carpet.