Kazakh folklore says that the body of Jochi, Genghis Khan's eldest son, lies in a mausoleum in the Ulytau region, in the country's central uplands. When archaeologists recently studied the body from the medieval mausoleum, though, they didn't find Jochi — but they did find a novel genetic lineage that may have been passed on by Genghis himself.
Genghis Khan, born Temüjin in the Khentii mountains of northeast Mongolia, was a central Asian warrior who founded the sprawling Mongol Empire in 1206. The Mongols' astounding horseback riding abilities and skill with bows and arrows enabled them to quickly conquer a territory stretching from the Pacific Ocean to Central Europe. Genghis Khan and his wife Börte had four sons and five daughters. Their eldest son, Jochi, was born around 1182 and died around 1227, shortly before Genghis' own death. The northwestern part of the Mongol Empire that Jochi (also spelled Joshi, Zhoshi and Jüshi) ruled was later known as the Golden Horde.
