There was an excellent piece featured on our front page last week about the sacking of Baghdad in 1258 by Mongols, and it was so good that it prompted your correspondent to write a piece about all of the famous cities the Mongols had sacked during their expansionary phase in the 13th and 14th centuries.
The Mongol Empire needs no introduction from me, as it spread from the Pacific Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea at its height, becoming the largest land-based empire in all of history. Mongol cavalry, feared and despised throughout the world, overran empires, republics, and kingdoms in China, Persia, Western India (present-day Pakistan), Eastern Europe, and the Levant. Below are the most splendorous cities the Mongols sacked:
10. Kaifeng, 1232-33. Kaifeng was the capital city of the Jurchen Jin dynasty of northern China. At the time of the Mongol siege of Kaifeng, China was roughly divided between three empires, the Xi Xia, the Jurchen Jin, and the Song.
