Travel and Travelogues

In Search of Genghis Khan | Other Mongolia travelogues | Mongolia photos | Other places

In Search of Genghis Khan

In Search of Genghis Khan by Tim Severin. Together with some companions, the author set out to follow Genghis' conquests on horseback. Severin seems to have made something of a career of like projects. His website details similar attempts to dog the (real and mythical) trails of Jason, Sinbad, Saint Brendan, Moby Dick and Robinson Crusoe. Nice job if you can get it!

Amazon. In Search of Genghis Khan by Tim Severin.

Interview with Tim Severin from the Sunday Business Post, Ireland. The Genghis Khan book is only one of many touched on, but I was impressed by Severin's respect for truth and level-headed adventuring—"Any fool can be uncomfortable."

Other Mongolia travelogues

Mongolia: Land of Genghis Khan—Its People by Günther Eichhorn, photologue and travelogue, divided into nature and people. Good shot of a bactrian camel.

Amazon. In The Empire of Genghis Khan: An Amazing Odyssey Through the Lands of the Most Feared Conquerors in History by Stanley Stewart. Reviews are split. Some loved it, a few find it racist and degrading.

Reviewed by Adam Goodheart, New York Times. Funny, not very complimentary review review.

"Stewart's writing props itself on creaky stereotypes. All Russian women seem to be oversexed and have lipstick-smeared teeth; an American teenager he meets in Istanbul, pining for the girls in halter tops back at his hometown Dairy Queen, is gratingly implausible. A German tourist Stewart encounters on the steppe is, of course, a whiny moron in tie-dyed pants. In fact, Stewart often comes across as little more than a tourist himself."

In the steppes of Genghis Khan by Tim Cahill, who goes on a "tresure hunt in the land of beneficent horsemen." There is a photo of Genghis Khan look-alikes at a festival amongst other photos of Mongolia and its people.

Mongolia photos

Mongolia travel photo gallery bills itself as the "biggest collection of photos of Mongolia on the Web." It certainly is an impressive resource, over 2,847 photos as of December 2004, and apparently growing.

Other places

Info on the Erdene Zuu monastery, "center" of the empire, from Pilot Destination Guide, by Guilia Vincenzi.

Where is Inner Mongolia? from Genghis Khan, Treasures of Inner Mongolia (The Provincial Museum of Alberta). Boring.