National Geographic Team Continues Mongolia Expedition

Stefany Chen/Guardian

The warlord infamous for uniting Mongolia and forging the largest empire in history has, for the last 800 years, laid buried in a hidden tomb. But if UCSD scientist Dr. Albert Lin has his way, Genghis Khan’s last resting place won’t be so secretive for much longer.

A research team from UCSD, headed by Lin, combined forces with National Geographic to work on a noninvasive archaeological search for Khan’s tomb near his birthplace in Khentii Aimag, in Mongolia’s Valley of the Khans.

Lin and his team, based in UCSD’s Center for Interdisciplinary Science in Art, Architecture and Archeology (CISA 3), began the project over a year ago. Little is known about Khan’s burial, compared to the importance of his contributions to the world, including modern military strategies, recurve bows and stirrups (the height of warfare technology at the time), and bringing the East and West together. Faced with this lack of information, Lin and his team are using technology to bring them closer to finding the tomb.

“Genghis Khan had a huge impact, which we know of today,” Lin said. “Technology, international relations and even our very own genetics — one in two hundred men today are known to be genetically related to Genghis Khan.”

Finding the tomb proved difficult since it was hidden without any sort of markings, following the customs of Khan’s tribe. The UCSD team is using state-of-the-art technology and techniques like GOI satellite imaging, 3-D virtual reality, ground penetrating radar and aerial mapping to catalyze their search.

“We are using physical tools that allow us to measure magnetic shifts in the ground that are either induced or observed passively, [allowing] us to map what is underneath the ground without having to dig anything up,” Lin said.

The use of noninvasive archaeological tools is a fairly recent practice that allows for progress without damage to the historical sites.

“This is an important site for the Mongolian people,” Lin said. “We do not want to destroy or disturb it. We just want to find information to be able to protect it.”

In addition to finding Genghis Khan’s tomb, Lin and his colleagues hope to also document the heritage of the Mongolian people.

“We are hoping to use the information we discover from these expeditions to provide the Mongolian people and their government with tools so they can make decisions about conservation,” Lin said.

UCSD and National Geographic are working together to increase the chances of finding the tomb.

Calit2, which offers the program, has a HIPerSpace display wall, a one gigapixel display that allows Lin and his team to examine single pixels of digital images of the Mongolian territory. There are 70 display tiles, each with a four megapixel resolution — adding up to a total of 286,000,000 pixels — allowing Lin and other UCSD researchers to examine photos with great detail. The use of such technology allows Lin and his team to avoid disturbing the land during their search, while also allowing them to work from San Diego part time.

National Geographic also uses the help of “online explorers.” By logging on to the National Geographic web site, anyone can tag modern and ancient structures in a GOI satellite image of the Valley of the Khans, which might be clues to finding Genghis Khan’s tomb. Lin and his team will then explore the sights tagged by online explorers in Mongolia.

“We have received really good feedback from the public that has guided us towards some really incredible discoveries of cultural heritage sites that even predate Genghis Khan,” Lin said.

Readers can contact Laira Martin at [email protected].

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