DISCOVER THE MAN BEHIND THE LEGEND!
What do pants, the pony express, cannons, paper money, skis, violins, bakhlava and “hooray!” have in common? Answer: Genghis Khan introduced them all to the West.
Not Genghis the brutal barbarian of Western history books, but Genghis the great civilizer and lawmaker, whose empire brought each of these innovations to the west, including 13th Century Mongolian-style democracy.
Now the most comprehensive exhibition of Genghis Khan and his treasures invades the Reagan Library, its only Southern California stop on an international tour that has drawn more than a million visitors.
As the exhibit strikingly portrays, Genghis’s reputation as the greatest conqueror is well-deserved – he dominated three times more land in his lifetime than either Julius Caesar or Alexander the Great, a conquest attested to by the formidable array of swords, bows, arrows, saddles and armor included on display in Genghis Khan. In fact, the historic exhibition showcases hundreds of artifacts from Genghis’s 13th century Empire, the largest such collection ever to tour.
Curated and developed by dinosaur expert Don Lessem, the exhibition features more than 200 spectacular objects on display, including rare and sophisticated weapons, costumes, jewels, ornaments, instruments and numerous other fascinating relics and elaborate artifacts from 13th-century Mongolia.
“I went to Mongolia to look for fossils and discovered the truth about Genghis Khan, a civilizing genius,” said Lessem. “It’s a great story best told in a major exhibition.”
The exhibition features loans by private collectors from Mongolia, Azerbaijian and the United States