Genghis Khan's Summer Capital at Karakorum

In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the founding and development of Karakorum, the first real capital of the Mongol Empire, established by Genghis Khan in 1220 on the Orkhon River in present-day Mongolia. They discuss how it grew under his son Ögedei into a cosmopolitan hub where Chinese craftsmen, Persian scholars, and Nestorian Christians lived alongside Mongol nomads. The city's design included a palace with a giant silver tree fountain that dispensed wine and kumis, and a Buddhist monastery but also a church and mosque—testament to the empire's religious toleration. Lucas explains how Karakorum served as a logistical base for campaigns, a center for tribute redistribution, and a symbol of Mongol authority, contrasting with the later shift to Khanbaliq under Kublai. The episode also touches on the city's decline after the collapse of the Yuan dynasty and its rediscovery in the 20th century by Russian and Mongolian archaeologists who found evidence of trade goods from as far as Persia and China. Luna asks about daily life, the fate of the silver tree, and whether any ruins remain today. #Karakorum #GenghisKhan #MongolEmpire #OrkhonRiver #GedeiKhan #MongolCapital #MedievalCities #CentralAsiaHistory #Mongolia #SilkRoad #SilverTree #PaxMongolica #YuanDynasty #Archaeology #NomadicEmpire #WorldHistory #History #FexingoHistory #SteppeWarriors #YassaCode Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo