1 hour

This September on Discovery Channel, KHUBILAI KHAN: FALL OF THE MONGOL HORDES reveals how the legacy Genghis Khan created was destroyed in one night in the greatest naval disaster of all time.  In this one-hour documentary, ocean archaeologists and Mongol scholars work together to uncover events that have defied explanation for seven centuries.  The programme premieres on September 11 at 2100 hrs (9:00 pm SIN/HK). Encores September 12 at 1300 hrs (1:00 pm); September 14 at 1900 hrs (7:00 pm); September 15 at 0300 (3:00 am) and 1100 hrs (11:00 am); and September 18 at 0900 (9:00 am).

Khubilai Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan, had successfully continued his grandfather’s incredible legacy for some time and was determined to conquer Japan – the one country that refused to bow to him.  He amassed an armada of 4,400 ships carrying 140,000 men.  But in a single night in August 1281, that fleet and its crew all vanished.  It was the largest loss of life at sea in history, and a turning point that altered the fate of the world. 

For nearly 700 years the fleet was lost – and the story behind its demise left to mere speculation until a Japanese fisherman found a heavy bronze object featuring stylized Mongol writing.  Using the coordinates from the fishing vessel, a team of underwater archaeologists led by diving expert Kenzo Hayashida of the Kyushu Okinawa Society for Underwater Archaeology, together with James Delgado of the Vancouver Maritime Museum, travel to the Imari Gulf, just two miles off the Japanese coast.  There they discover the wreck of a huge Mongol warship from 1281 and begin to reveal the truth behind the greatest disaster in military history.

The special follows Hayashida and his team as they excavate the seabed finding valuable evidence of the fleet’s last moments.  Bit by bit, details about the armada surface, giving viewers a glimpse into that fateful night.  Hayashida and his team find encrusted iron swords and helmets, human remains, unexploded clay grenades and ten huge anchors.  Pollen samples taken from the anchors confirm Hayashida’s suspicions that the boats are from 13th century China, the boat-building heartland of the Mongol Empire.  Even more intriguing, the anchors’ location indicates that the ships sank in extremely violent conditions.

With new evidence in hand, Hayashida enlists world-leading typhoon expert Julian Heming to investigate the conditions that could have caused the fleet’s destruction.  Japanese legend suggests that a “kamikaze” or “divine force” wiped out the attacking armada, but Heming’s results suggest the fleet may have been the victim of a super-typhoon.

But the team also unearths some unusual artifacts, suggesting that that the typhoon was not the only factor at work that night.  Was the fleet struck down by a natural disaster, human error or foul play?  What was it that took Khubilai Khan’s entire fleet to the bottom, bankrupting the Mongol government and destroying his empire?  

 Although Khubilai’s reign ended spectacularly, his legacy lives on to this day.  Columbia University’s Professor Morris Rossabi (author of Khubilai Khan: His Life and Times) and University of Wisconsin History Professor David Morgan (author of The Mongol Empire and Its Legacy) point out some of the emperor’s many achievements.  Khubilai had two new cities built – Ta Tu (modern-day Beijing) and Shang-Tu (his new capital, also known as Xanadu) – as well as the Grand Canal.  He was instrumental in bringing new galleries, plays and artistic movements to his people, putting the Mongolian empire at the forefront of global culture.  And last but not least, Khubilai Khan created paper currency, an invention that swept across the globe.