Genghis''s tomb | Christopher Atwood | chief Japanese archaeologist | prime ­minister

IN THE FOLLOWING WEEKS, everyone I interviewed - from Mongolia's prime ­minister to top Mongolian specialists at universities around the globe to Japanese archaeologists who had searched for Genghis's tomb in the 1990s - poured buckets of cold water on the Genghis Khan Expedition's claim. They each gave reasons why this "find" was nothing new and most likely not even close to true. Shimpei Kato, the chief Japanese archaeologist from a well-funded, high-tech expedition that had visited the Oglogchiin site in 1996, told me, "Inside, there was a relatively small Mongol-era grave, but, for sure, that was not Genghis's tomb." And Christopher Atwood, PhD, a respected Mongol from Indiana University, actually laughed when I asked him about it, saying, "The [Mongolian] government only approves digs if they know the teams are looking [for the tomb] in the wrong place."

Thus the catch-22: No one - not even those in the government - is absolutely positive of the grave's location. There is one spot that many suspect is the tomb's location - a sacred mountain that's in the Khentii district and off-limits to digging - but, in the end, it's all speculation. Add to that fact the objections of Genghis's descendants, the Mongols, to disturbing the remains of the founder of their nation, and anyone searching for his elusive tomb has some pretty big obstacles to overcome. Granted, the government realizes that extending the permits to dig has some economic benefit to them (e.g., bringing wealthy foreigners in, providing jobs for translators); however, the people of Mongolia seem overwhelmingly against disturbing their ancestor's remains. They don't want him dug up - for the same reason that people in Britain would object to anyone rummaging around the tombs of the English kings in Westminster Abbey. Genghis was their first king. He is the revered ancestor of a living people.