01c. 1162–1227
Genghis Khan
Founder of the Mongol Empire
Conquered from China to the Caspian. Chased one prince all the way to the Indus in 1221… then turned back.
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New Why Genghis Khan never conquered India →
The why behind the map.
Every border, empty desert and oddly placed city has a reason. Atlas Asks goes and finds it: one question, one animated map story, real sources.
Now asking Why did Genghis Khan turn back at the Indus?
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Episode 001 · out now
Why Genghis Khan never conquered India (but his descendant did)
NEW!
📚 Sources
- Peter Jackson, The Delhi Sultanate: A Political and Military History (Cambridge University Press, 1999)
- Minhaj-i-Siraj Juzjani, Tabaqat-i Nasiri (c. 1260)
- Ziauddin Barani, Tarikh-i Firoz Shahi (c. 1357)
- Ata-Malik Juvayni, History of the World-Conqueror (c. 1260)
- Babur, Baburnama (tr. A. S. Beveridge, 1922)
- “Chinggis Khan versus the Unicorn”, History Today
Genghis Khan conquered half the known world, then stopped at the Indus in 1221, looked across at India… and turned around. For a century the Mongols kept coming back, and kept losing. So how did his descendant end up ruling it anyway?
- 8:38
- 100 animated scenes
- Borders drawn to the year
Time machine
Borders move. Our maps keep up.
Plenty of history videos paste today's map onto the past. We draw every border for the year the story is in. Drag through 650 years of Mongols, sultans and Mughals, using the same maps as episode 1.
Unrolling the map…
- Mongols & their heirs
- Vassal or raided
- Delhi Sultanate
- Khwarazm
Borders adapted from historical-basemaps by A. Ourednik (GPL-3.0), corrected year by year for episode 1. Coastlines: Natural Earth. Medieval frontiers were fuzzy, so lines are simplified.
The cast of episode 1
Real people. Very small hats.
Our characters are cartoons, but everything they do on screen really happened (or we tell you when it's a legend). Tap a card to flip it.
02d. 1231
Jalal al-Din
Last prince of Khwarazm
Cornered at the Indus in 1221, he rode his horse off a cliff into the river, and survived.
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03r. 1211–1236
Iltutmish
Sultan of Delhi
Born into a Turkic tribe on the steppe and sold as a slave as a boy. Grew up to rule Delhi.
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04r. 1296–1316
Alauddin Khalji
Sultan of Delhi
Held off the Mongols at Kili (1299) and Siri (1303), then crushed their next invasions.
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051336–1405
Timur
Warlord from Samarkand
Crossed the Indus in 1398 and sacked Delhi.
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061483–1530
Babur
Founder of the Mughal Empire
Timur on his father’s side, Genghis Khan on his mother’s. Won at Panipat in 1526 and took Delhi.
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How an episode gets made
From “huh, that's weird” to a finished map story.
A map that looks wrong
An empire that stops at a river. A border drawn with a ruler. An island in the middle of nowhere with a flag on it.
Real sources
Chronicles, academic histories and primary texts, listed under every video. Legends are labelled as legends.
Borders drawn to the year
No modern maps pasted onto the past. Every frontier on screen is checked for the year the story is in.
Animated, narrated, scored
A cast of cartoon characters, hand-built maps, an original score, and sound design, all made for the story.
100Animated scenes in EP 001
10Border snapshots, 1206–1857
6Historical sources
0Stock clips
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