Genghis Khan – World’s Largest Equestrian Statue

Nope, it’s not the replica of Leonardo da Vinci’s original masterpiece, its way bigger than that. This is a statue revering a Mongolian legend & equestrian extrodinare, Genghis Khan.

No One Remembers the Good Guys

He was not a nice man but a charismatic leader, and even centuries after his death his story is the stuff legends are made of. The location of the statue is where Genghis is thought to have found the golden whip of legend – an omen that is said to have inspired his many conquests. The base of the statue features a small museum where visitors can see a replica of the golden whip and try traditional cuisine.

Reinventing Mongolia

During the years of Communist rule even the mention of Khan was forbidden in Mongolia, and his name was effectively dragged through the mud to the rest of the world. Today the Mongolian people are attempting to find their national identity again & provide the world with Genghis Khan’s legend through the eyes of his people. They’ve taken steps to accomplished this by creating an enormous statue of a mounted Genghis Khan.

In fact, it stands 131 feet tall (and took 4.1 million dollars & 250 tons of steel to build) which makes it the largest equestrian statue on the planet. Heck, it might even be weighing that side of the planet down!

The Catch

There is an admission fee to get inside this giant statue, although you can take an elevator to a deck on top of the horses head. You can also try some traditional Mongolian cuisine, but you might want to skip the meat portion – they’ve been eating horse meat since Ginghas Khan’s time. Oh and there is a theme park (yeah I really said it, a theme park) in the works as well. I won’t make the obvious Mickey Mouse reference, but…

In Conclusion

There is no doubting that this is one huge statue and that in and of itself is quite an amazing accomplishment. While I don’t like the theme park bit, (and for some reason I don’t think he would either) who am I to judge? Not only will it provide a source of revenue and honor a national hero but it also helps to provide the Mongolian people a sense of identity they have been denied for a very long time.