THE Mongolian capital has been swamped with images of its former potentate, Genghis Khan, in honour of the anniversary of his unification of the nation in 1206. At the climax of celebrations in Ulan Bator yesterday, soldiers in traditional uniform and bearing yaks' tail standards heralded the unveiling of an enormous statue of the Great Khan in the main Sukhbaatar Square.

The monument in which it is set contains earth and stones from the holy and historic places in Mongolia associated with his rule. Nambaryn Enkhbayar, the president, addressing a crowd of onlookers and dignitaries, including the Duke of York, said: "May the spirit of the great Genghis Khan inspire the future of the Mongolian people and lead it once again to prosperity.''

Genghis has always had his cultish admirers, those on the remote steppe who believe that he will return 800 years after his death to rescue the world from decay. But the reverence in which he is held by mainstream Mongolians comes as a shock to visitors from the West, where his name is associated with bloodshed and terror.

To those who still think of themselves as his people, he is a unifying symbol when Mongolia is emerging from 70 years of repression by the Soviet Union.

"People know his military side but they do not know his philosophy,'' said Nomch P Davaanyam, a 30th-generation descendant who is trying to revive the sky-worshipping rituals Genghis performed. Mr Davaanyam is not alone in his assessment. In a radical reshaping of Genghis's popular reputation, historians are increasingly taking the Mongolian side. "The West was blinded by his conquests,'' said Jack Weatherford, an American anthropologist and author of Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World. "They overlooked his great impact on law and commerce. He outlawed the kidnapping of women, guaranteed diplomatic immunity to ambassadors and granted religious freedom to all people.''

Historians also point to the introduction to the West of inventions such as gunpowder and paper that his empire made possible.

"He was an advocate of free trade and a flat tax system,'' President Enkhbayar told a gathering of journalists. "He changed the whole world.''

Mr Enkhbayar, who was educated at Leeds University, was previously head of the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party, the former communist party that is now overseeing a nervous transition to democracy. Genghis's monument is replacing a Soviet-style mausoleum containing the body of Sukhbaatar, the revolutionary leader after whom the square is named. He ensured Mongolia's freedom from China in 1921 but also introduced communism and has now been buried elsewhere.

The monument remains half-finished because of squabbles over building contracts and Mr Enkhbayar unveiled it beneath scaffolding and concrete slabs.

The ceremony was timed to coincide with the beginning of Naadam, the annual festival when Mongolian men and boys compete in the three "manly sports'' of wrestling, archery and horse-racing.

Visitors can also watch Genghis Khan - the Rock Opera in the state theatre. On the steppe outside Ulan Bator, 500 members of the armed forces are re-enacting the campaigns of the Khan's hordes.

Despite the money being spent on the monument and the celebrations, which some feel could have been better used in patching up the crumbling infrastructure, most Mongolians seem to appreciate the effort to reinvigorate the memory of Genghis Khan.

Tumurbat Altanmur, 16, said: "I think he was very cruel and tough. But without cruelty his kingdom would not have stood.''

Recent studies based on mass DNA testing have suggested that 16 million men living in Eurasia are descended from a single figure in the early 13th century, presumed to be Genghis.

President Enkhbayar said: "That shows he is not just Mongolia's; he is the world's.''

The Khan career

Born 1162, the son of a murdered clan chieftain. Spent much of his childhood on the run from family enemies.

As a teenager, he began skilfully weaving alliances of competing tribes.

Elected as the tribes' Great Khan in 1189.

Extended his rule south and west before he fell from his horse and died in 1227.

Genghis's reputation for butchery was founded on his sacking of several cities and even kingdoms that defied his diplomatic overtures. But even in the time of Chaucer, two centuries later, this was not his dominant image and in The Canterbury Tales (1399) the poet wrote of him as "this noble kyng'' of "greet renoun''.