The world’s tallest equestrian statue featuring the infamous Genghis Khan atop his Mongol horse. The Mongolian Horde could travel up to 128 km a day, and at its peak the Mongol Empire stretched from Vladivostok in the East to Vienna in the West. How long would it take them to cover the distance between these two cities?

Scroll down for my solution!

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Solution

Using Google Maps, the driving distance between Vladivostok and Vienna is 10,956 km. Dividing this by the maximum distance the Mongolian Horde can cover in a day gives:

10,956 / 128 = 86 days

The walking distance is a little less at 10,420 km. By the same method as above we get:

10,420 / 128 = 82 days

However, the shortest distance, which is achieved by travelling along a great circle – the shortest distance between two points on a sphere – is 8,067 km. The route is shown on the map below.

This gives a travel time of:

8067 / 128 = 63 days