Genghis Khan - Physical Appearance

Physical Appearance

There is some debate as to whether Genghis Khan was fully Mongoloid or mixed Mongoloid/Caucasoid as there is no historical portrait of Genghis Khan. The only piece of evidence attributed to his Caucasoidness was the description from Rashid al-Din that recorded him having red hair and green eyes. However, these traits still exist in some modern Mongols who are predominantly Mongoloid in appearance but have inherited all light hair and light eyes traits such as blue or green eyes and blonde or red hair. A certain number of Mongols, particularly the Oirats in western Mongolia, tend to exhibit lighter features such as fair skin, blue or green eyes, varying shades of brown hair, and sometimes even red or blonde hair. Zerjal et al. identified Genghis Khan's paternal DNA Y-chromosomal lineage to be Haplogroup C3, a common mongoloid marker among Tungusic people, which would make Genghis Khan more likely to be either predominately Mongoloid or at least a Euro-Mongoloid hybrid. Genetic testing of ethnic Mongolians mtDNA in Xinjiang China were found to have 14.3% west Eurasian mtDNA, which shows a significant amount of Europoid maternal contribution into the Mongolian mtDNA gene pool.