How You Can Join Hunt for Genghis Khan

Online volunteers examine satellite images of Mongolia
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 5, 2011 7:12 PM CDT
How You Can Join Hunt for Genghis Khan
A statue of Mongolian hero Genghis Khan on the Inner Mongolia University campus.   (Getty Images)

Armchair history buffs, take note: A University of California scientist needs all the help he can get finding the tomb of Genghis Khan. The only thing participants need to join the Valley of the Khans Project is a computer and an Internet connection, reports the Washington Post. Under the program, volunteers go to the Field Expedition Mongolia website to sift through satellite images of Mongolia and flag things that look unusual.

“What a computer can’t do is look for ‘weird things,’ but when you ask a human brain, you don’t have to tell it what ‘weird’ is; we know,” says Albert Lin. About 7,000 volunteers are already taking part in the program, which was developed with National Geographic. Lin and other explorers on the ground visit sites that get enough flags, but so far the resting place of Genghis and his family remains a mystery. (More Genghis Khan stories.)

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