Who conquered more, Genghis Khan or Alexander the Great?
By area, Genghis Khan conquered more. The Mongol Empire became the largest contiguous land empire in history, far bigger than Alexander's, though it reached its peak under his heirs. Alexander conquered faster and much younger, destroying the Persian Empire before he was thirty, and he never lost a major battle.
Two of history's greatest conquerors could never have met, born some fifteen centuries apart. Alexander the Great destroyed the Persian Empire before he was thirty; Genghis Khan forged the empire that would become the largest contiguous land empire the world has ever seen. So who conquered more, and who was the greater commander? Here they are, side by side.1
Head to head
| Genghis Khan | Alexander the Great | |
|---|---|---|
| Lived | c. 1162 to 12272 | 356 to 323 BC3 |
| Age at death | About 65, if born in 1162 (1155 and 1167 are also proposed)4 | 325 |
| Years in power | Great Khan from 1206 to 1227, 21 years6 | King of Macedon from 336 to 323 BC, 13 years7 |
| Role | Founder and Great Khan of the Mongols | King of Macedon and conqueror |
| Main campaigns | Western Xia (before 1211), Jin China (from 1211), the Khwarazmian Empire (from 1219)8 | Granicus 334, Issus 333, Gaugamela 331 and the Hydaspes 326 BC9 |
| Greatest triumph | Uniting the steppe and conquering much of northern China | Gaugamela, 331 BC |
| Empire at his death | About 13.5 million km² (5.2 million mi²), give or take 1.5 million km²10 | About 5.2 million km² (2.0 million mi²)11 |
| Largest extent | About 24 million km² (9.3 million mi²), reached under his heirs12 | Its size at his death; it split apart after 323 BC |
| Battle record | Repulsed by Jamuqa at Dalan Baljut early in his rise; rarely beaten afterward13 | Never lost a major battle; checked for a time at the Persian Gate, 330 BC14 |
| Undoing | Died on campaign in 1227; the empire split among his heirs | Died at 32; his empire split among his generals |
| Lasting legacy | Reshaped Eurasia, its trade and its peoples | The Hellenistic age and the model of the conqueror |
Genghis Khan: the empire from the steppe
Where Alexander was handed a ready army, Genghis Khan had to build his: he bound the feuding Mongol clans into one fighting nation, fast, drilled and without mercy. His campaigns swallowed much of northern China and the lands of Central Asia, so that by the time he died in 1227 his empire already stretched across much of Asia. Under his sons and grandsons it grew into the largest contiguous land empire in history, reaching from the Pacific toward the gates of Europe.15
Alexander: the undefeated conqueror
Alexander the Great inherited a superb army from his father Philip and, in barely a decade, destroyed the Persian Empire and marched to India. His victory at Gaugamela in 331 BC is one of the most famous in history, and he never lost a major battle. He died at thirty-two with no settled succession, and his empire was torn apart by his generals.16
Who lived first, Alexander or Genghis Khan?
Alexander lived first, by roughly fifteen centuries. He was born in 356 BC and died in Babylon in June 323 BC, aged 32. Genghis Khan was born around 1162, nearly 1,500 years after Alexander's death, and died on campaign in August 1227.17
The Khan's exact birth year is uncertain. Britannica lists 1155, 1162 and 1167 as proposed dates, with 1162 the year favored in Mongolia today, while the Encyclopaedia Iranica gives 1167 as the probable year. He therefore died at somewhere between about 60 and 72, roughly twice Alexander's age at death.18
They belong to different worlds: the pike phalanx and heavy cavalry on one side, the mounted archers of the steppe on the other.
Whose empire was bigger when each man died?
Genghis Khan's, by a wide margin. Estimates compiled by the political scientist Rein Taagepera put the Mongol realm at about 13.5 million km² (5.2 million mi²) at the Khan's death in 1227, give or take 1.5 million km², and Alexander's empire at about 5.2 million km² (2.0 million mi²) in 323 BC.19
On those figures the Khan held between two and three times as much land. The gap then widened. Under his sons and grandsons, among them Kublai Khan, the Mongol Empire kept growing until it covered some 24 million km² (9.3 million mi²), the record for a contiguous land empire. Alexander's empire never grew after him; it was divided among his generals. These totals are measured from historical maps, so they are approximations rather than surveys.20
Did either of them ever lose a battle?
Alexander never lost a major battle, though at the Persian Gate in January 330 BC the satrap Ariobarzanes drove his column back from a walled pass until a night march through the mountains turned the position. Genghis Khan suffered a real defeat early in his rise, and some of his generals were beaten later.21
According to the Secret History of the Mongols, his former sworn brother Jamuqa repulsed him at Dalan Baljut and forced him to take refuge in the Jerene gorge by the Onon river; the same chronicle says that after Ong Khan of the Kereyit turned on him and the fight at the Qalaqaljit Sands he counted only 2,600 men. Once he was Great Khan, the defeats fell to his commanders rather than to him: Jalal al-Din, heir of the Khwarazm-Shah, routed a Mongol army at Parwan, shortly before Genghis Khan himself beat him on the Indus in 1221. Alexander's last great battle, against King Porus at the Hydaspes in 326 BC, also ended in victory.22
The verdict
So who was better? Genghis Khan was the greater conqueror and empire builder: at his death he held two to three times Alexander's territory, and he had to forge his army from feuding clans, where Alexander inherited his father's.23
Alexander was the more consistent battlefield commander, never beaten in a major battle, and he conquered faster and younger, in thirteen years on the throne against the Khan's twenty-one as Great Khan. Three caveats temper any ranking: the areas are map-based estimates, the greatest extent of the Mongol Empire came under his heirs, and the two men fought in different worlds with different tools. One built an empire that reshaped a continent for generations; the other set the ancient world's benchmark for the conqueror.24
Set beside Napoleon instead, the Mongol empire still dwarfs anything he held, as our Genghis Khan vs Napoleon comparison shows, and our Genghis Khan vs Caesar sets him against Rome. For the men who led his armies, see the greatest commanders of the Mongol Empire.
Alexander faces two more rivals in Napoleon vs Alexander and Alexander vs Caesar, and both he and the Khan appear in our ranking of the greatest military commanders. Genghis Khan is one of the faces in Guess the Commander, and Alexander one of the eight results of Which Commander Are You?
About this comparison
Genghis Khan and Alexander each have a full, separately sourced biography on this site. Setting the Mongol above the Macedonian, or the reverse, is our own call and fair game for argument; the facts and dates rest on established histories. Read more about our editorial policy.
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