This story is the first in a series that will document our quest to find Genghis Khan’s missing tomb, one of history’s greatest unsolved mysteries. We especially want to thank the Mamont Foundation and Outback Trading .

For over a decade, Alan Nichols, a lawyer, politician and noted explorer, has been hunting to find the missing tomb of Genghis Khan. This fall, the editors of True.Ink have teamed up with Nichols and the Mamont Foundation to solve one of history’s greatest mysteries.

Before he told me about Mountain X, the funeral practices of Mongolian shamans in the 1220’s, and his unwavering belief that he had isolated Genghis Khan’s missing tomb, Alan Nichols had a point to make.

An emphatic point. He held a finger out across his desk like a high school English teacher, and issued a correction for centuries of error.

“Chinggis,” he said.

Not Genghis.

“Genghis—that’s a bludgeoning of what he was actually called,” Nichols said. “They called him Chinggis. Chinggis Qa’an. Qa’an means ruler. Of course his birth name was Temujin.”

This first conversation was over a year ago, held on the second floor of the legendary Explorer’s Club in New York. At the time, Nichols was president of the group, a post he obtained after an eclectic career in politics, law and religious studies. As we spoke about his hunt for Chinggis, he stood from behind a desk that once belonged to Teddy Roosevelt, and his tall, wiry frame was enclosed by a pair of elephant tusks perched behind him.

Nichols had not planned to look for Chinggis Qa’an.

“Stumble is the right word,” he said.

His expertise, he explained, had not been in archaeology. It was mountains. Specifically, sacred mountains. He traveled the world to find them and researched the cultures that worshipped them. He catalogued his findings in To Climb A Sacred Mountain, a now out of print book that documents his quest to find the holiest mountains.

“In the stages of all religions, mountains, high points, are very important,” he said. “If you haven’t got a mountain, you’ll build one, or a cathedral or pyramid or something.”

Worshipping mountains was a natural impulse.

“Getting up towards God or whatever is very inherent in man,” he said. “If you’re going to talk to God, like Moses. Or if you’ve got anthropomorphic Gods, you’re going to put ‘em on Olympus.”