A team of Japanese and Mongolian researchers have discovered a structure in Mongolia they believe is connected with the burial site of Genghis Khan (around 1162-1227), the founder of the Mongol Empire, team members said Monday in Tokyo.
Team members said they expect the find to provide clues to the whereabouts of his burial site, which remains a mystery to this day.
The team, which includes researchers from Kokugakuin University in Tokyo and Niigata University, said it found the ruins, believed to have been built between the 13th and the 15th centuries, at the Avraga site in central Mongolia.
The burial site of Genghis Khan remains unknown. He was buried, according to his will, without any markings to foil grave robbers.
Noriyuki Shiraishi, an assistant professor at Niigata University, said that given the distances between such structures and tombs in other dynasties in the same area, the team believes the burial site of Genghis Khan is located within a radius of 12 km of the recent find.
The team started digging at the Avraga site in the village of Delgerhaan in Hentiy Province and discovered the ruins on a platform measuring 25 sq. meters.
