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Finding Genghis Khan's Tomb From Space

rossgneumann writes Genghis Khan really, really didn't want anyone to know where he was buried. The soldiers escorting his body to its final resting place killed everyone they passed, killed the people who built the tomb, and then were killed themselves. An elegant solution to this problem bubbled up from two unlikely sources: a man described as a "modern day Indiana Jones" and amateur archaeologists.

44 of 166 comments (clear)

  1. ah the great ghengis khan burial by nimbius · · Score: 5, Funny

    As a scientist ive studied this for quite some time. the troops who buried him were themselves killed by troops who were also killed, but not before the troops who killed the troops who killed the villagers were themselves killed and yet another regiment was dispatched to kill the troops killing the troops killing the troops.. Now in 2014 as we all know most of asia spends its time restlessly murdering anyone who has so much as heard of the poor chap. Its why textbooks today refer to the man as Gengles Mc. Kringle and hes portrayed as a bloated hamster living somewhere in cleveland.

    --
    Good people go to bed earlier.
    1. Re:ah the great ghengis khan burial by Calydor · · Score: 2

      Odin.

      At least get your fix right.

      --
      -=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
    2. Re: ah the great ghengis khan burial by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Actually there are many different variations for the spelling of the Norse "All-Father" Odin, although in English Odin is most common.

      On European websites it's more common to see Oden though.

      But properly there was often a V sound in front of his name, for example Wednesday used to be Wodenstag (Wodens Day) in German (W being a V sound).
      [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wodenstag]

  2. History Channel by a-zarkon! · · Score: 5, Insightful

    My guess is that this effort will be wildly unsuccessful, but will be picked up by the History Channel and turned into at least one 12-episode season of reality tv. It will chronicle their mostly futile efforts culminating in a season finale of grand failure. Yes I am still bitter after I got sucked into an episode of "Oak Island." I knew better, I watched it anyway. I will never get that hour back.

    1. Re:History Channel by gstoddart · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Yeah, History Channel has turned into a rather pathetic shell of its former self.

      It's aliens, ghosts, and various other bits of crap and conjecture.

      They should really stop calling themselves "History", and move onto "speculative fiction".

      History is facts and reality, most of the crap on History Channel is anything but.

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    2. Re:History Channel by gstoddart · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Oak Island is a real place, off the coast of Nova Scotia.

      It's long been rumored to have pirate treasure. There's a show about people looking to find it.

      Of course, it leads to a bunch of nutjobs with crazy theories, like it has for decades. But, History Channel is all about nutjobs with crazy theories these days.

      History Channel has become a joke with things like Ghost Hunters, Ancient Aliens, and enough crap to make you think they've jumped the shark and become a source you can no longer rely on for actual history.

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      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    3. Re:History Channel by halivar · · Score: 2

      What's worse, that, or putting Honey Boo Boo on The "Learning" Channel?

    4. Re:History Channel by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      An MIT guy figured out what is there. Its a ship, that sank into the swamp bow first. They used coconut fibers for seating of the rowers back then. Explains the "evenly spaced wood platforms" as well. I remember the show back in the 80s "In Search of" when Lenard Nimoy talked about it.

    5. Re:History Channel by Deadstick · · Score: 3, Informative

      To be honest, its former self was the Hitler Channel. You could scarcely watch three shows in a row without one, usually two, being about Hitler.

    6. Re:History Channel by peragrin · · Score: 3, Insightful

      To be fair the history channel only turned to crap I the last 3-4 years.
        Tic has been cheap from the beginning.

      The only Chanel that's worse is syfy which lost its science fiction audeince to wrestlers. You can even hear about Syfy channe executives talk about it not realizing they themselves are what screwed to pooch. I used to watch the soft channel regularly. Now it is hardly at all. Even the b rated scifi lame movies suck.

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      i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
    7. Re:History Channel by azav · · Score: 2

      Honestly, that's what I called it too.

      The problem with American TV is that it does nothing to help advance society in an interesting way. It's all about "look at this car crash/hillbilly! It's so terrible! Can you believe that?!"

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      - Zav - Imagine a Beowulf cluster of insensitive clods...
    8. Re:History Channel by azav · · Score: 2

      That's what makes it "compelling" TV people think there must be SOMETHING, what will these people find? Will they find it? Must tune in again!

      That's what networks want more than anything.

      --
      - Zav - Imagine a Beowulf cluster of insensitive clods...
    9. Re:History Channel by Charliemopps · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I happen to know a couple of people that are involved in Cable contract discussions. From what they tell me (and hey, they could be totally wrong but it does make sense) the industry generally thinks that Discovery networks (discovery channel) is soon going to get cut from a lot of networks, soon followed by A&E (History channel) because people are getting fed up with the price of the different tiers. Cable companies have to cut something and those 2 networks are nothing more than reality show dustbins. Just like Fox is losing networks left and right now because the fact of the matter is most people just want a "news channel" and CNN is just fine for that and doesn't have a giant group of people that hate them like Fox does. These networks have to drastically cut their price or improve their content or they're not going to get carried anymore.

      The companies themselves may be fine... they are making a lot of money in other things. Discovery holds patents on ebooks for some crazy reason. But the times of filling your entire channel with reality TV that costs you virtually nothing and has no depth is over. AMC has proven that even a small investment can have huge returns.

    10. Re:History Channel by Charliemopps · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Oak Island? WTF is that?

      Admittedly it's been a few years since I had cable TV, but have they really fallen that far? Back when we got rid of cable, the History Channel was more like The WWII Channel.

      Oak Island is supposed to be a Mystery... and if you read many of the sensationalized accounts of it from many disreputable reporters that conveniently leave out certain facts about the place it sounds very intriguing. But the fact is, the place isn't a mystery at all.

      Some kid swam out to it and found a tree with a pulley hanging from a branch a long time ago. That bit is likely true. But then, a guy heard about it and went out there. He was a Free Mason. And now, I don't mean the ones that rule the world. I mean the real ones that are basically like the Shriners that ware funny hats, drive gocarts and throw candy to kids in parades, and more importantly absolutely love secrets, mysteries, puzzles and hidden treasure. It's their bread and butter. They also like to relate all these mysterious stories to non-members to try and get you to join. If you ever meet someone at a party that starts talking about the Free Masons, run away. They'er either not a Free Mason and a conspiracy nut... or they are a Free Mason and a conspiracy nut.

      Anyways, from that guy on, every single person to investigate or own the island was a free mason. Including Franklin Roosevelt! You cannot trust anything they say about the place. The crazy thing about free masons is that they are usually conspiracy nuts, and their conspiracies always involve their own club. Once you realize that every single person to investigate the island was a conspiracy theorist, and that you can't trust any of their accounts, it makes a lot more sense. I'm pretty sure every rumor about the free masons ruling the world was likely started by an actual Free Mason. Not only that, they do things to make themselves even more mysterious because they think that's cool. That rock kind of looks like a skull? Well, they'll report it as 100% a skull and they're pretty sure the shape of the eye sockets indicate it's a model of the first popes skull... clearly leading to some secret of the ages.

      Long story short, Oak Island is what happens when you take a couple dozen conspiracy nuts and let them dig in the same hole for over 200 years and give them lots of media attention. The only thing buried on that island is all hope that those men would ever have to face reality.

    11. Re:History Channel by aaron4801 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I remember when TLC would show various surgeries and walk the viewer through every step. All the gory details from cataracts procedures, breast reconstructions, and other voluntary operations. That was nearly 20 years ago, but it hasn't always been crap.

    12. Re:History Channel by preaction · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The problem with American TV is the average American

    13. Re:History Channel by pla · · Score: 2

      every single person to investigate or own the island was a free mason. Including Franklin Roosevelt! [...] I'm pretty sure every rumor about the free masons ruling the world was likely started by an actual Free Mason.

      You could fairly argue that FDR did rule the world.

      Jus' sayin'.

    14. Re:History Channel by Darinbob · · Score: 2

      Someone who discovered it before does not mean recently. Ie, pirate buries his gold, comes back ten years later and retrieves it. Why would a pirate bury the gold in a way that was unretrievable?

    15. Re:History Channel by AK+Marc · · Score: 2

      If you ever meet someone at a party that starts talking about the Free Masons, run away. They'er either not a Free Mason and a conspiracy nut... or they are a Free Mason and a conspiracy nut.

      This is me, running. From some nut talking about conspiracies.

    16. Re:History Channel by swb · · Score: 2

      I share your fascination with Oak Island although I'll admit to being more skeptical about the "artifacts" found in the various digs than I used to be.

      For one, the chain of documentation about previous finds up to the early 20th century is a little dubious -- it's not like there was some set of neutral observers who preserved all the finds in one place for posterity and future scientific research. IIRC, much of what was found has been lost and what has been retained is of unauthenticatable veracity.

      Two, the running assumption has always been "buried treasure!!111" which has lead to a certain amount of secrecy and a kind of gold rush mentality, which has meant chronically underfunded "treasure hunters" who need to produce something to extend their search funding. Since most previous searches have "found something" it's not hard to see later searchers "finding something" in order to try to keep the project going.

      I'm not sure I necessarily buy the idea that there's not some application of money + technology that couldn't get to the, uh, bottom of it, either. It's not like bridges and other engineering works haven't been using caissons since about forever. Any serious attempt with real money to throw at it should be able to build and maintain a large caisson excavation to bedrock and explore from there. IIRC, I think some kind of environmental concerns have also inhibited the use of outright industrial-scale excavation akin to strip mining the entire island.

      I think the biggest problem has (and always will be) money -- the geography and geology of the island is such that simple excavating to the needed depths just won't work. Bore drilling is of limited value -- 6" diameter core samples probably aren't big enough to find something meaningful over an area of dozens of acres. You really have to spend huge dollars to move massive volumes of ground, build caissons and prepare to burn diesel by the tanker load to keep pumps running to keep the excavation from flooding. This would wind up being, what, a $20 or $30 million dollar project?

      And that doesn't get into the logistical problems -- Google Earth makes it look like parts of the Island are owned by others -- if you were to excavate 40 acres, 200 feet to bedrock, where the hell do you park 12 million cubic yards of overburden?

    17. Re:History Channel by bobbied · · Score: 2

      Just like Fox is losing networks left and right now because the fact of the matter is most people just want a "news channel" and CNN is just fine for that and doesn't have a giant group of people that hate them like Fox does.

      Fox New has the biggest audience in between the cable news outlets and the only reason it has been removed from any networks is because it has started to command more fees from the distributors and cable operators (which is why dish turned them off). If cable operators are looking for space (which they are not) there are plenty of lesser watched networks they can ditch.

      According to the Neilson ratings, the pecking order is Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, Fox Business News, and Headline news, in that order. Cable providers sell advertisement space on these channels so they want you to watch so they can claim higher fees for the ad time. Trust me, they will ditch the channel that is the most profitable for them and that is decidedly NOT going to be Fox News, unless Fox is trying to squeeze them too hard, or like in the case of Dish, if the provider can afford to play hardball with them.

      --
      "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
  3. Khan!!! by colordotmatrix · · Score: 5, Funny
    Just ask James T. Kirk!!!!

    :-)

  4. Follow the breadcrumbs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Wouldn't the trail of dead bodies lead them straight to the tomb?

    1. Re:Follow the breadcrumbs by Deadstick · · Score: 2

      Oops, mea culpa. Wrong Khan.

  5. His legacy is 2% by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 3, Informative

    In Mongolia, today, 2% of the Y-Chromosomes alive are Genghis Khan's.

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    sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
    1. Re:His legacy is 2% by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 4, Funny

      Says the man posting as AC so he doesn't get murdered by Khan's descendants.

      --
      My God, it's Full of Source!
      OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
    2. Re:His legacy is 2% by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 2

      I seem to have underestimated his legacy. In fact 0.5% of the males of this planet are direct descendents of Genghis Khan. It works out to 17.5 million male descendents for Genghis Khan. According to the table presented, in a small sample size of 46 men from Mongolia, some 35% carried Genghis Khan's markers in their y-chromosomes.

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      sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
    3. Re:His legacy is 2% by jbmartin6 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      It is a lot more than that, the article only covers "direct" male descendants. i.e. son of son of son of son of son of son of son. If you were the son of one of his daughters you wouldn't count. So 17.5 million men should have the same last name as him, if he had one. Maybe someone else can do the math, I wonder what the number would be if you accounted for females, and how that would compare to any other person from the same time period.

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      This posting is provided 'AS IS' without warranty of any kind, implied or otherwise.
    4. Re:His legacy is 2% by myowntrueself · · Score: 4, Informative

      It's not like Khan was his family name and people called him Mr. Khan.

      Mongolians don't have 'family names'.

      These days they use the 'patronymic' system which was introduced by the Russians, so you have your given name and your fathers given name. Typically the fathers given name is put first, so if your dad was Dave and you are Bob your FULL name would be Dave Bob.

      Before the Russian influence Mongolians had their tribal name and their given name but this was 'phased out' by the communists. Until relatively recently no one used their tribal names and many Mongolians forgot them. Even today employers don't record peoples tribal name and its hardly ever used. It appears on birth certificates but not in passports; a modern Mongolian passport will have the fathers given name in the 'surname' field.

      This can cause issues for mixed marriages and international travel with children as the name on the childs passport would make little sense to immigration officials in other countries and they might assume that the foreign father travelling with his child isn't the real father and that theres something fishy going on. (ie your name is Dave Smith, your sons name is Bobby. Normally his passport would have his name as "Bobby Smith", but if he was born in Mongolia his passport would have his name as "Bobby Dave". You have to get special dispensation from the director of the passport office to have the name on the passport in conventional, international format.

      Under the new regime the state identity papers list the tribal name so everyone has to provide them. Since many people just don't know it they use 'Borjigin' which is Chinggis Khans tribe. Thus the official numbers of this tribe is going up and up even though most of them are not actually biologically from that tribe.

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      In the free world the media isn't government run; the government is media run.
    5. Re:His legacy is 2% by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Our family follows patronymic system. My last name, as recorded in my passport, is my dad's first name. My wife and daughter use my first name as their last names. We used to follow the system of village_name fathers_name given_name caste_name. But urbanization made the village name quaint. Caste names have become taboo in the last few decades. Leaving us with just a dad's name + given name.

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      sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
  6. it was a paternity thing by steak · · Score: 4, Funny

    all those illegitimate children were looking to hit up his estate for palimony.

  7. Next up, finding Atlantis from Space by T.E.D. · · Score: 3, Interesting

    ...and then Narnia and Oz.

    The Mongols didn't bury their dead. Their religion (like that of many nomadic pastoral societies) relied on open-air burials. The whole "tomb" myth was most likely invented by their Chinese neighbors.

    1. Re:Next up, finding Atlantis from Space by XanC · · Score: 3, Informative

      According to the article you linked:

      Nobles were also buried in coffins, but unlike Lamaistic dignitaries, these coffins were buried with additions like weapons, horses, food and other things, which were meant to help them in the next world - in Erlik-Khans kingdom. Erlik-Khan is the god of death. The location of a nobleman's tomb was kept secret, to ensure that they rested in peace.

    2. Re:Next up, finding Atlantis from Space by T.E.D. · · Score: 2

      (he was a Shamanist with a lot of Nestorian Christian family members). Lama Buddhism became the religion of Mongols only 400 years later

      This is why its important to read the whole link:

      Depositing the corpse in the steppe was meant to sacrifice it to predatory animals. According to Mongolians this is the last virtous act a person can carry out. This idea is much older than Lamaism and exhibits a really strong shamanistic element of spiritual thought.

      The other thing I didn't bring up (because I don't have a single little link for it handy) was that the story about the tomb with the untold wealth cannot be found in any sources for several hundred years after the event. So whatever knowledge we have about there being a tomb with stuff in it did not come from directly (and given the time differential and location of that source, most likely not indirectly either) from anybody with actual first-hand experience of the event in question.

      IOW, its a myth. There might be a germ of something true in some myths, but realistically you might as well be looking for Noah's arc.

  8. This doesn't take a genius by sacrilicious · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Genghis Khan really, really didn't want anyone to know where he was buried. The soldiers escorting his body to its final resting place killed everyone they passed, killed the people who built the tomb, and then were killed themselves.

    First guy: Hey dude, do you know how to find Genghis K's tomb?

    Second guy: Yeah, just follow the trail of blood and dead bodies.

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    - First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then ???, then profit.
    1. Re:This doesn't take a genius by cfalcon · · Score: 2

      In fairness, that was pretty much everywhere Genghis had been :P

      The "hardcore history" podcast does a "Wrath of the Khans" set of eps, they are pretty great.

  9. Not found by Dan+East · · Score: 3, Informative

    IMO, they've really not done much. They allowed people to tag aerial imagery for things they *think* they identify - rivers, roads, and other anomaly. That resulted in 2.3 million tags. And, well, that's it. 55 tagged areas were verified by field teams as having some interest to archaeology. However, I don't see how any of this has anything to do with Genghis Khan specifically.

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    Better known as 318230.
  10. Re:Doesn't replace digging by geantvert · · Score: 2

    Modern technologies (e.g. Ground Penetrating Radar) can already provide very useful scientific information without having to dig. Of course, proper digging would provide a lot more information but the mongols are not, and should never be, obliged to allow it. Plenty of other important archaeological sites are under a similar situation. For instance, the tomb of the first Chinese emperor, and that is not a real problem.

    Science does not require that all archaeological sites should be explored the same way that all sedimentary rocks on earth do not have to be put to pieces to find all existing fossils.

    The main problem is that once a site is identified in a remote area of Mongolia, it is likely to be looted very quickly. Do they have the will and the means to protect those sites forever? I doubt it so I am afraid that sooner or later they will have allow some archeologist on the sites.

  11. Re:History Channel Solved by willworkforbeer · · Score: 2

    They found dozens of layers of wood, then sand, then wood, then sand...

    Finally they discovered what the original builder was burying... his OCD.

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    Pretending this is my office full of bitter coworkers..
  12. Bullshit for Betas by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Five seconds of thought on the laughable legend of Khan's 'burial' immediately exposes the moronic lies- but the lies were concocted to meet the world view of Betas.

    I am reminded of the excellent recent TV show Spartacus. As the end approached, endless dribblers speculated about what the story would to with the 'demise' of Spartacus. I pointed out to friends and family that since, rarely, the show had INTELLIGENT writers, they would end with Spartacus's allies ensuring he had an anonymous burial so the Romans could never have the satisfaction of exploiting his 'capture' alive or dead- and the legend of Spartacus would have its greatest possible beginning.

    Ghengis Khan almost certainly went the same way, but for different reasons. The Mongols had religious beliefs derived from early Christianity (not the Jewish based Modern Christianity created by Roman leaders centuries after the death of Christ). Khan was a hard, intelligent, ruthless leader from a philosophy that respected the bleak land, and what it meant for a person to flourish is such an inhospitable place. He conquered because he was good at conquering, and for no other reason. He was, in fact, simply PLAYING a giant, real game of Civilisation IV. As the end approached, he could easily have ordered his people to construct for his tomb a structure as grand as anything seen since the time of the Great Pyramids- but his personal philosophy was the diametric opposite of such pathetic grandiose.

    His REAL burial site was as modest and anonymous as that of Spartacus- and for exactly the same reason. TRULY 'great' people never crave an impressive tomb, but they frequently like to create a mythology that lives on- often for the ongoing benefit of the legacy/family/dynasty.

    Ghengis Khan allowed himself to APPEAR as a 'god' for the sake of the inheritors of his kingdom, because he KNEW that Human Betas (like you lot reading Slashdot) operate at the level of myths, so for his kids to continue their conquest of the world the leaders of the Mongols had to seem 'special'. Look at the braindead Yanks are told that Obama (who can't even speak without an autocue, and has stated on multiple occasions that his favourite pastime is murdering first responders with a second round of drone strikes) is a VERY special American.

    It is telling that the Mongols faded back into History astonishingly quickly, although the impact of their conquests lived on long after true Mongols ceased to rule over their captured lands. Where the Mongols came from was where the Mongols returned, and still live to this day. Their dedication to the land was FAR greater than their interest in riches and power over other men. After spanking the Chinese in order to satisfy a long standing grudge, they lost interest.

    Anyone here really interested in the subject should make themselves aware of the astonishing battle that halted the movement of Mongols into West Europe. The Mongols had found themselves fighting at a time when their opponents were vastly inferior to the Ancient Romans from 1000 years early. The sick corruption of organised religion had encouraged vile rulers to de-skill their populations, so the churches (of the East and the West) would dominate unopposed. The Mongols thus found themselves up against TINY poorly conceived, infinitely vicious forces that were created entirely to suppress the ordinary unarmed Humans of those nations.

    The Mongols would have been easily THRASHED by Rome, had the two co-existed in History, and the Mongols were well aware of this. After victory after victory in the West, Khan felt obliged to force the heart of the New Roman Empire- the leaders of the Roman Catholic church, to capitulate. But in the true birthplace of so many of Man's religious systems, Egypt, Khan suffered his first loss and any chance of taking West Europe ended.

    Ghengis Khan and the Mongols proved the societies of East and West at the time were significantly flawed- a single PRIMITIVE force with absolute military intent was able to easily dominate the so-

  13. Re:History Channel - Real History costs too much. by kenj123 · · Score: 2

    BBC always had some good documentaries. I (usa) have been watching quite a few lately about WWI and WW2 east front on Youtube. they are mostly low res standard format, but good enough for me. ( I don't know the provenance of the shows are..). History channel used to run quite a few BBC shows about middle ages that were pretty good. but since about 4years ago I haven't seen anything on usa channels from BBC. can anyone from uk comment on recent material? History channel does have some problems with documentaries set in the prephotography era. the choices are talking heads, dramatizations, slow panning shots of ancient ruins and artwork or cgi. some of the cgi shows like engineering an empire and lost worlds, and decisive battles are great. But I suspect they were expensive and only some material really works well that way. Personally I suspect that when the tv format went wide screen and hi res, history channel choked at the expense of refilming the material in the new format and decided to go with cheaper reality shows until they can figure out ways to film real history shows cost effectively.

  14. Re:Killed, killed, killed by jeremyp · · Score: 2

    Given the technology available and the relative size of the Earth's population, he was a whole lot worse than any of those three.

    --
    All I want is a secure system where it's easy to do anything I want. Is that too much to ask ~~ Randall Munroe
  15. THIS IS FRICKIN' AMAZING! by tlambert · · Score: 2

    THIS IS FRICKIN' AMAZING!

    I mean *who wouldn't* want to be buried in a "tomb from space"!?!?!

    This lends total credence to the story the other day that India has interplanetary aircraft flying in the interplanetary air! This must be *how* Genghis Khan *got* hi tomb from space!

    I TOTALLY agree that we should be looking for Genghis Khan's frickin' *tomb from space*!!!!!!

  16. Re:History Channel - Real History costs too much. by MarkvW · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Get four history professors who have divergent viewpoints and hate each other. Get somebody cool for a moderator, like Jon Stewart. Then let those boys go at it.