Genghis Khan: The Secret History of the Mongols

GHENGHIS KHAN: The Secret History of the Mongols (2025) is an interesting documentary about the life of Ghengis Khan, as told by the Secret Histories.

It sheds light on many aspects of the Mongol leaders' life. It fills in many gaps of his younger years, his rise to power, and how he built his empire.

"A man's journey building an empire from China to Mesopotamia, Danube to Persian Gulf; the battles and worldwide conquests that created the Mongolian Empire."

The documentary does as good job at shining new light on the enigmatic figure of Ghengis Khan. It shows that he was so much more than a simple barbarian brute or bloodthirsty warlord. He was a historic figure, a cunning strategist and a leader that valued loyalty. He was capable of leading vast armies, capable of building an empire, and definitely capable of winning the respect of his people.

I'm interested in medieval history and I have seen references in some of the books I've read to the "Secret History of the Mongols" (Genghis Kahn).

I was pleased to find a documentary based on that history.

Being Euro-centric I am embarrassed to admit I knew very little about the Mongols other than the typical "they were barbarians" opinion.

Now from the History we start to see how oversimplified and frankly wrong that opinion is.

Although they were to be sure incredibly violent and thus "barbaric" in that sense, so were the other powers at the time (look at the crusades, for example, or England's wars with Wales).

So I learned a lot watching this documentary. It is well done and thankfully is not repetitive like some documentaries are. I never found it boring.

The scenery where it was filmed is beautiful.

The costumes are beautiful.

To be sure some of the experts (well one of them) are a bit woo-hoo out there. But in general I found the experts interesting and informative.

Bonus point is I now understand why in the 13th century, on the verge of invading (and likely crushing) Western Europe, the Mongols packed up their tents and went home.

I recommend this if you're interested in the history of this time.