Siege of Gurganj

After months of siege the Mongols broke a dam and flooded the city. It was one of the deadliest sieges of the age.

The site of the battle on the 1260 map. Shaded: Mongol Empire, 1260, Mamluk Sultanate.

Key facts

When: 1221
Where: Konye-Urgench, Turkmenistan
Sides: Mongols vs the Khwarazmian capital
Commanders: Jochi, Chagatai and Ogedei
Result: City destroyed
Type: Mongols
Chapter: 3. The Abbasids, the Crusades and the Mongols

The wider picture: The Mongol storm

Genghis Khan destroyed the Khwarazmian empire between 1219 and 1221. His grandson Hulagu took the fortress of Alamut in 1256 and Baghdad in February 1258. The last Abbasid caliph of Baghdad, al-Musta'sim, was put to death on Hulagu's orders, by most accounts rolled in a carpet and trampled.

See the 1260 map Read chapter 3

More mongols battles

Siege of Otrar1219 to 1220
Battle of the Indus1221
Fall of Alamut1256
Fall of Baghdad1258
Siege of Aleppo1260
Battle of Ain Jalut1260

All 7 mongol invasions of the muslim world battles · Battle explorer

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