Cool!

A modern day Genghis Khan, without the rape, pillage and plunder:



Visit the original website to view the whole series of five pictures.

Genghis Khan, by the way, is a fascinating historical figure. He and his little band of Mongolian marauders literally raped, pillaged and plundered their way across Asia carving out the largest empire ever known to man, leaving the landscape littered with blood and corpses. That empire only lasted a generation or two, since his sons, being more the marauding, warring type, like their father, were not much at empire administration. The empire broke up into various Khanites and had all but disintegrated a hundred years later.

Prior to the Mongol Empire, the Arab Empire stood between the civilizations at the opposite ends of the Eurasian continent, acting as middlemen traders, zealously guarding their privileged position of control over the famous Silk Road as well as the Arabian Sea route. The Mongol hordes destroyed the Arab Empire and a good part of Eastern Europe, which caused that region to lag behind in development right up until the end of the Soviet Union.

However, during the height of the Mongol Empire, with the Arabs no longer able to block direct access, an Italian dude by the name of Marco Polo traveled overland to China, spent a considerable amount of time actually working for the Emperor himself, Kublai Khan, a descendant of Genghis Khan, and brought back fantastic tales of riches and splendor. His story was published and it inspired Europeans to search for a passage to the East by sea. It was this brief little window of opportunity that ushered in the age of European exploration that eventually brought Christopher Columbus to the shores of some Carribean Island, thinking he had landed on the east coast of Asia and it's why North Americans who were already in the "New World" became known as Indians.

Thanks Genghis.