Divers Discovered A 700-Year-Old Shipwreck That Casts New Light On Genghis Khan’s Fearsome Empire

What were the Mongolians famous for? Why were they feared all over the world? Who started the reign and who took over? The story of this civilization is quite intriguing. In the mid-12th century, Temujin Borjigin was born in Mongolia. During his young age, he lost his father, who was killed by an enemy group called “Tatars”. After this incident, his own community abandoned him. It was his hardships during his early life that made him believe that power should be earned and not inherited. In 1186, his beliefs and support from the lower class made him a leader of the Mongol people. He was elected as the Khan. His reign also faced challenges, but by the time he died, he was a name to reckon with. The world knew him as Genghis Khan. He had a vast area of Asia and Europe under his control prior to his death. During his rule, he was accountable for 40 million deaths and in the most lethal way. By the time he passed, Kublai Khan (his grandson) took over. The very name of the Mongols used to send chills through the spines of many. After taking over the reign, six years later, Kublai’s eyes turned to Japan. His plan was to invade them- if Japan didn’t hand over the money and goods to the Mongolians. Finally, an attack was launched in Japan with the alliance of Korea. In order to expand his dynasty even further, he set sail 800 vessels with 15,000 soldiers on board across the East China Sea towards Japan. Initially, the Mongolians were in a favorable position, but the bad weather forced them to retreat to the sea where the majority of vessels were destroyed by a typhoon. This didn’t deter the determination of Kublai Khan and he was determined to conquer Japan. In his quest, he took 140,000 fighters to Kyushu, but history repeated itself and another typhoon again defeated Khan’s men. It was in July 2015 that archaeologists found the 700-year-old wrecked ship of Mongolians under the water off the Kyushu coast. The shipwreck will give an insight to the lifestyle of the Mongolians and the techniques that they used to build a ship. Several artifacts were discovered, including a bone-china set. Although the typhoons kamikaze was turning into a myth because severe typhoons are never associated with this side of the world, a recent study showed layers of sediments from the lake bed of Japan affected by the extreme weather during the period of Kublai Khan’s reign. As of now, the shipwreck is reburied in the seabed again by the archaeologists and there’s no plan to raise it to the surface. This is how the buried shipwreck gave a sneak peek into the life and reign of one of the famous Mongolian ruler.