Genghis Khan: The Great Civilizer

Genghis Khan Invades Downtown Mobile!
Discover the man behind the legend in the blockbuster exhibition experienced by over a million people around the world.

MOBILE, AL.– In the tradition of years past, the Gulf Coast Exploreum Science Center is proud to announce a return to major blockbuster exhibitions in the Spring of 2019. On the scale of its China and Pompeii exhibits, the Exploreum invites visitors to take a journey back in time with one of history’s most prolific and controversial figures – Genghis Khan. Through artifacts, performers, artwork, and other historically significant items, discover the eye-opening story of the world’s most well-known conqueror, civilizer and innovator in the exhibition Genghis Khan: The Great Civilizer – opening at the Gulf Coast Exploreum Science Center on Saturday, January 26, 2019.

To book someone to come speak to your group about this incredible new exhibit, please click here.

Also supported by BlueCross BlueShield of Alabama, Spire, Jesco Inc., Mobile County Marketing Fund, and Alabama Power.

Curated and developed by dinosaur expert Don Lessem, the exhibition features more than 300 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.”

Experience life in 13th-century Mongolia, entering the tents, battlegrounds and marketplaces of a vanished world that was once the largest land empire in history. Explore Genghis Khan’s life and those of his sons and grandsons during the formation, peak and decline of the Mongol Empire.

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.

However, this special exhibition presents a more complete image of the legendary leader whom Time Magazine and CNN named “The Man of the Millennium.” As visitors discover, Genghis not only created the nation of Mongolia and its written language, but his lineage established the modern borders of nations from India to Iran, Korea to China and opened the trade routes that united East and West, forever after.

Visitors will experience the exhibition through the eyes of a Mongolian resident, receiving a civilian identity card at the beginning of their journey. From warrior to spy to princess, they will follow this character’s life throughout the rise of the great Mongol Empire across six key scenes:

• The Grasslands: Discover the daily life of a nomad on the high plateaus of Central Asia and learn about the outcast Genghis Khan’s earliest struggles. Walk into an ancient Mongol ger (yurt) home. Stand in the midst of a herd of stampeding horses.

• Rise of the Mongols: Learn how the young, charismatic Genghis Khan united warring tribes in order to form an unrivaled cavalry. Explore the equestrian culture and innovations in weaponry Genghis Khan mastered to conquer four times more land than any Empire in history.

• The Walled City: Enter the recreation of Karakorum, the walled city, which became the capital of the Mongolian Empire after Genghis Khan’s son inherited the kingdom. See how life changed for Mongols once they had vanquished all of their enemies, and arts and diverse religions and cultures flourished as the need for war subsided.

• The Silk Road: While Genghis Khan was a ruthless warrior, he was also a savvy statesman and benevolent ruler. He developed a written language and a sophisticated society with fair taxation, stable government, appreciation of the arts, religious freedom and open trade along the Silk Road. Explore this vital trade route which enabled the exchange of both goods and ideas between cultures.

• The Palace of Kublai Khan – Enter the sumptuous Chinese palace of Xanadu, the center of the Empire of Genghis’s grandson, Kublai, who united China for the first time. See porcelain treasures and a sword with the emblem of a guardian of Marco Polo, among many others.

• Mongolia Today: Trace the influence of Genghis Khan in images of modern Mongolian life. The distinctive horse-based culture of Genghis Khan’s time persists today as the nation and language he created lives on eight centuries after his rule. See how his legend lives on through the namesake of many modern Mongolian brands, and how he was revered as a god among the Mongolian people.

Genghis Khan will open to the general public on Saturday, January 26, 2019. Additional details to come in the following months.

Interested in becoming a sponsor for Genghis Khan: The Great Civilizer blockbuster exhibit? Please contact Acting Executive Director, Don Comeaux at dcomeaux@www.exploreum.com or by phone at 1-251-208-6855 or contact Toni Webb at twebb@www.exploreum.com or by phone 1-251-208-6881.

 News Articles:

WKRG – “Mongol Hordes Invading Mobile in Spring 2019”

Lagniappe – ‘Blockbuster’ Khan exhibit arrives in January