Mongol destruction of Merv
A Mongol army under Tolui takes and destroys Merv, one of the largest cities in the world at the time. Medieval sources give death tolls of several hundred thousand that modern historians regard as heavily inflated. The city never recovered, which is why its remains survive so completely.
Historical — it happened, and the record is settled.
Subjects
- Merv · city · Turkmenistan
- Mongol Empire · empire · not located
Evidence
Verified — Every field is supported by a cited authoritative source.
State Historical and Cultural Park 'Ancient Merv'
The best-preserved of the great oasis cities of the Central Asian Silk Roads, a sequence of adjacent walled cities occupied over four millennia, largely unbuilt over since the Mongol destruction of 1221.
UNESCO World Heritage Centre · 1999 · Verified
World Heritage List, inscribed 1999 (list entry 886)
Recorded on Merv
- Mongol destruction of Merv
- Plague strikes the besieging army at Kaffa
- Plague reaches the Mediterranean
Related
Related because they share a subject in the Atlas — never because the text looks similar.