The Stele of Genghis Khan (, ), also known as the Stele of Yisüngge, is a

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

stele A stele ( ) or stela ( )The plural in English is sometimes stelai ( ) based on direct transliteration of the Greek, sometimes stelae or stelæ ( ) based on the inflection of Greek nouns in Latin, and sometimes anglicized to steles ( ) or stela ...

inscribed with a dedication to Yisüngge, nephew of

Genghis Khan Genghis Khan (born Temüjin; August 1227), also known as Chinggis Khan, was the founder and first khan (title), khan of the Mongol Empire. After spending most of his life uniting the Mongols, Mongol tribes, he launched Mongol invasions and ...

, for performing a feat of archery during a gathering of

noyan ''Noyan'' (pl. noyad), or ''Toyon'', was a Central Asian title of authority which was used to refer to civil-military leaders of noble ancestry in the Central Asian Khanates with origins in ''Noyon'', which was used as a title of authority in ...

s after the

Mongol conquest of the Khwarazmian Empire Between 1219 and 1221, the Mongol forces under Genghis Khan invaded the lands of the Khwarazmian Empire in Central Asia. The campaign, which followed the annexation of the Qara Khitai Khanate, saw widespread devastation and atrocities. T ...

, dated to c. 1224–1225. It was discovered in 1802, close to the remains of Khirkhira, a 13th-century settlement in

Transbaikal Transbaikal, Trans-Baikal, Transbaikalia ( rus, Забайка́лье, r=Zabaykal'ye, p=zəbɐjˈkalʲjɪ), or Dauria (, ''Dauriya'') is a mountainous region to the east of or "beyond" (trans-) Lake Baikal at the south side of the eastern Si ...

that served as the center of the territories of

Qasar Khasar (; , ), was one of the three full brothers of the legendary Genghis Khan. According to the '' Jami' al-Tawarikh'', his given name was ''Jochi'' and he got the nickname ''Khasar'' after his distinguished bravery. He was also called Khabht ...

and his descendants. Since 1936 it has kept at the

Hermitage Museum The State Hermitage Museum ( rus, Государственный Эрмитаж, r=Gosudarstvennyj Ermitaž, p=ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)ɨj ɪrmʲɪˈtaʂ, links=no) is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and holds the large ...

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. It is important for containing the first known inscription in

Mongolian Script The traditional Mongolian script, also known as the Hudum Mongol bichig, was the first Mongolian alphabet, writing system created specifically for the Mongolian language, and was the most widespread until the introduction of Cyrillic script, Cy ...

History

According to the inscription, the stele commemorates an event that occurred in the settlement of Buqa Sočiɣai, whose location is unknown. It was found, however, near Khirkhira in the

region, which according to the

Jami' al-tawarikh ''Jāmiʿ al-Tawārīkh'' () is a work of literature and history, produced in the Mongol Ilkhanate. Written by Rashid al-Din Hamadani (1247–1318 AD) at the start of the 14th century, the breadth of coverage of the work has caused it to be call ...

, was part of the

Ulus Ulus may refer to: Places * Ulus, Bartın, a district in Bartin Province, Turkey * Ulus, Beşiktaş, neighborhood in Beşiktaş, Istanbul Province, Turkey *Ulus, Ankara, an important quarter in central Ankara, Turkey ** Ulus (Ankara Metro), an und ...

Rediscovery

The first message about a stone with an inscription carved with "oriental inscriptions" was left by Russian historian and explorer Grigory Spassky in the journal ''Sibirskii Vestnik'' (Siberian Bulletin) in 1818. Later it turned out that the stone was discovered in 1802, not far from the remains of a settlement known as Khirkhira. Khirkhira was located on a low terrace above the flood-plain, close to the mouth of the Khirkhira River, which, through the Urulyunguy River, was a tributary of the Argun River. Local interpreters were able to read the initial two words of the inscription, "Genghis Khan", which led to it being named the "Stele of Genghis Khan". The stele was for a time kept in the "Natural History" room at the mining school of

Nerchinsky Zavod Nerchinsky Zavod () is a rural locality (a '' selo'') and the administrative center of Nerchinsko-Zavodsky District of Zabaykalsky Krai, Russia, located near the Sino-Russian border. As of the 2010 Census, its population was 2,842. Hist ...

. Between 1829 and 1832, along with a load of gold, it was transported to

, during which period it was accidentally broken in the middle. Once in Saint Petersburg, it was first transferred to the Ministry of Finance and then to the Academy of Sciences and embedded in the wall in the entrance hall of the

Asiatic Museum The Asiatic Museum (Азиатский музей) in Saint Petersburg was one of the first museums of Asian art in Europe. Its existence spanned 112 years from 1818 to 1930 when it was incorporated into the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of th ...

. In 1936, it was transferred to the Hermitage, to this day occupying a central place in the permanent exhibition of the Mongolian Art Hall in the third floor of the museum.

Copies

Copies of the stele exist in various museums, including the

National Museum of Mongolia The National Museum of Mongolia () formerly known as the National Museum of Mongolian History () is a history museum focusing on Mongolian history located in Chingeltei, Ulaanbaatar. It characterizes itself as "a cultural, scientific, and educat ...

Mongolia Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south and southeast. It covers an area of , with a population of 3.5 million, making it the world's List of countries and dependencies by po ...

and the Inner Mongolia Museum in

Inner Mongolia Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of China. Its border includes two-thirds of the length of China's China–Mongolia border, border with the country of Mongolia. ...

. A

volumetric model In 3D computer graphics and modeling, a volumetric mesh is a polyhedral representation of the interior region of an object. It is unlike polygon meshes, which represent only the surface as polygons. Applications One application of volumetric ...

of the stele was created in 2017 by the Hermitage's Laboratory for Science Restoration of Precious Metals, so that an exact polymer replica could be grown layer-by-layer. The replica was presented to

in 2019 to be placed in the under-construction Genghis Khan Museum in

Ulaanbaatar Ulaanbaatar is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities in Mongolia, most populous city of Mongolia. It has a population of 1.6 million, and it is the coldest capital city in the world by average yearly temperature. The municipa ...

Inscription

The text of the stele consists of 5 lines - the first line, containing the name

is elevated as a sign of respect, as is the fourth line that contains the name of his nephew Yisüngge (but lower than the first). The scribe's writing style is also uncommon, as they write a few distinct letters with the same forms, such as (') and ('), making the stele somewhat difficult to read. According to

Igor de Rachewiltz Igor de Rachewiltz (April 11, 1929 – July 30, 2016) was an Italian historian and philologist specializing in Mongol studies. Igor de Rachewiltz was born in Rome, the son of Bruno Guido and Antonina Perosio, and brother of Boris de Rachewiltz ...

(2010), the inscription reads (with letters in parentheses being unclear): As the ''ald'' is a unit of measure equal to the length between someone's outstretched arms, approximating 160 cm = one ald results in 335 ald being equal to ~536 m.

References

{{reflist, refs= {{Cite book, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DuCRAgAAQBAJ, title=The Mongolic Languages, last=Janhunen, first=Juha, date=2006-01-27, publisher=Routledge, isbn=978-1-135-79690-7, language=en{{Rp, 38–39 {{cite web, url=http://www.hermitagemuseum.org/html_Ru/08/hm89_0_2_123.html, title=Зал искусства Монголии, accessdate=2009-01-20, archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090408150657/http://www.hermitagemuseum.org/html_Ru/08/hm89_0_2_123.html, archivedate=2009-04-08 {{cite web , url=https://tass.ru/kultura/7281689 , title=Эрмитаж подарил Монголии копию Чингисова камня - Культура - ТАСС , format= , accessdate=2021-12-05 , date=2019-12-06 {{cite web , url=https://mongoltoli.mn/history/h/477 , title=Чингисийн чулууны бичиг , format= , accessdate=2021-12-05 {{cite web , url=https://www.atarn.org/mongolian/mongol_1.htm , title=WHAT IS THE SCRIPT ON THE CHINGGIS KHAN'S STELE ABOUT? A monument to top athletic performance? A Monument to the Uigarjin Mongolian script? , website=ATARN Home Page , accessdate=2021-12-05 , date=2019-12-06 , author=Dr Gongor LHAGVASUREN {{cite web , url=http://ez.chita.ru/encycl/concepts/?id=4974 , title=Чингисов камень , website=Энциклопедия Забайкалья , format= , accessdate=2021-12-05 , author= {{cite book , author=Rachewiltz , title=Introduction to Altaic philology : Turkic, Mongolian, Manchu , publisher=Brill , publication-place=Leiden Boston , year=2010 , isbn=978-90-04-18889-1 , oclc=707926722 {{cite journal , last1 = Kradin , first1= N.N. , title= Who Was the Builder of Mongol Towns in Transbaikalia? , url = https://www.researchgate.net/publication/326077318 , journal = Золотоордынское Обозрение / Golden Horde Review , year= 2018 , volume = 6 , issue = 2 , pages = 224–237 , doi = 10.22378/2313-6197.2018-6-2.224-237 , access-date = 2021-12-05 , doi-access= free 13th-century inscriptions Steles Monuments and memorials in Russia Collection of the Hermitage Museum History of the Mongolian language Mongolia–Russia relations Mongolian inscriptions