[1] The mausoleum is located in the Kandehuo Enclosure in the town of Xinjie,[2] in the Ejin Horo Banner in the city of Ordos, Inner Mongolia, in China.

[a] After Genghis Khan died in or around Gansu[7] on 12 July AD 1227,[8] his remains were supposedly carried back to central Mongolia and buried secretly and without markings, in accordance with his personal directions.

[11] After the fall of the Yuan in 1368,[10] these permanent structures were replaced by portable mausoleums called the "eight white yurts" (naiman tsagaan ger).

[citation needed] Under the Qing, 500 Darkhad were exempted from military service and taxation; the shrine also received 500 taels (about 16–17 kg or 35–37 lb) of silver each year to maintain its rituals.

[citation needed] This traditional Chinese structure was described by a Belgian missionary in 1875[14] but was destroyed at the Panchen Lama's suggestion in order to end an outbreak of plague among the Darkhad in early 20th century.

[citation needed] After the Mongolian Revolution, a sacrificial rite was held for Genghis Khan to "bring peace and safety to... human beings and other creatures" and to "drive out bandits, thieves, illness, and other internal and external malefactions" in 1912.

[17]In 1915, Zhang Xiangwen (t 張相文, s 张相文, p Zhāng Xiāngwén, w Chang Hsiang-wen) began the scholarly controversy over the site of Genghis Khan's tomb[18] by publishing an article claiming that it was in Ejin Horo.

[19] During World War II, Prince Demchugdongrub, the notional leader of the Japanese puppet government in Mongolia, ordered that the mobile tomb and its relics be moved to avoid a supposed "Chinese plot to plunder it".

[20] When he accepted Japanese weaponry to defend it, however, the Nationalist government became alarmed at the possibility of Japan using the cult of Genghis Khan[20] to lead a Mongolian separatist movement.

)[20] The Japanese still attempted to use the cult of Genghis Khan to fan Mongolian nationalism; from 1941–4,[21] the IJA colonel Kanagawa Kosaku[citation needed] constructed a separate mausoleum in Ulan Hot consisting of 3 main buildings in a 6 hectares (15 acres) estate.

[20] Upon their arrival on 21 June 1939, the Communists held a large public sacrifice to Genghis Khan with a crowd of about ten thousand spectators; the Central Committee presented memorial wreathes; and Mao Zedong produced a new sign for it in his calligraphy, reading "Genghis Khan Memorial Hall" (t 成吉思汗紀念堂, s 成吉思汗纪念堂, Chéngjísī Hán Jìniàntáng).

[20] As part of the Second United Front, it was allowed to pass out of the Communist controlled area to Xi'an, where Shaanxi governor Jiang Dingwen officiated another religious ritual before a crowd of tens of thousands on 25 June.

[23] A few days later, the Gansu governor Zhu Shaoliang held a similar ritual[24] before enshrining the khan's relics at the Dongshan Dafo Dian[25] on Xinglong Mountain in Yuzhong County.

[24] Plans were put forward to move the khan's shrine to the Alxa League in western Inner Mongolia or to Mount Emei in Sichuan.

[10] The district's Communists set up rituals honouring Genghis Khan in the early 1950s, but abolished the traditional religious offices surrounding them like the Jinong and controlled the cult through local committees with loyal Party cadres.

[3] Early the next year,[15] the central government permitted the return of the objects at Kumbum to the site being constructed at Ejin Horo.

[10] After this ritual, he immediately held a second ceremony to break ground on a permanent temple to house the objects and the khan's cult, again approved and paid for by China's central government.

[14] Rather than having eight separate shrines throughout Ejin Horo for the Great Khan, his wives, and his children, all were placed together; a further 20 sacred and venerated objects from around the Ordos were also brought to the new site.

[14] The government also mandated that the main ritual would be held in the summer rather than in the third lunar month, in order to make it more convenient for the headers to maintain their spring work schedules.

[33] On 10 July 2015,[34] 20 tourists aged 33 to 74—10 South Africans, 9 Britons, and an Indian[35]—were detained at Ordos Ejin Horo Airport, arrested on terrorism-related charges the next day,[36] and ultimately deported from China[37] after they watched a BBC documentary about Genghis Khan in their hotel rooms prior to visiting the mausoleum.

[citation needed] The site uses a five-colour scheme of blue, red, white, gold, and green to represent the multiethnic nature of Genghis Khan's empire and also the sky, sun and fire, milk, earth, and prairie.

[43][44] The mausoleum is guarded by the Darkhad or Darqads[24] ("Untouchables"), who also oversee its religious festivals, stop tourists from taking photographs,[39] keep candles lit,[39] and watch over the site's keys and books.