THE SCENE: “In Xanadu did Kubla Khan a stately pleasure dome decree…” In this passage, Marco Polo gives an eyewitness account of Kubilai’s famous palace in Shang Tu (Xanadu), which included a sixteen mile hunting resort reserved solely for the use of the Khan.
THE TEXT: In this city Kubilai Khan built a huge palace of marble and other ornamental stones. Its halls and chambers are all gilded and the whole building is marvelously embellished and richly adorned. At one end it extends into the middle of the city; at the other it abuts on the city wall. At this end another wall, running out from the city wall. At this end another wall, running out from the city wall in the direction opposite to the palace, encloses an encircles fully sixteen miles of park-land well watered with springs and streams and diversified with lawns. Into this park there is no entry except by way of the palace. Here the Great Khan keeps game animals of all sorts, such as hart, stage, and roebuck, to provide food for the gerfalcons and other falcons which he has here in mew. The gerfalcons alone amount to more than 200. Once a week he comes in person to inspect them in the mew. Often, too, he enters the park with a leopard on the crupper of his horse; when he feels inclined, he lets it go and thus catches a hart or stag or roebuck to give the gerfalcons that he keeps in mew. And this he does for recreation and sport.
In the midst of this enclosed park, where there is a beautiful grove, the Great Khan has built another large palace, constructed entirely of canes, but with the interior all gilt and decorated with beasts and birds of very skillful workmanship. It is reared on gilt and varnished pillars, on each of which stands a dragon, entwining the pillar with his tail and supporting the roof on his outstretched limbs. The roof is also made of canes, so well varnished that it is quite waterproof. Let me explain how it is constructed. You must know that these canes are more than three pals in girth and from ten to fifteen paces long. They are sliced down through the middle from one know to the next, thus making two shingles. These shingles are thick and long enough not only for roofing but for every sort of construction. The palace, the, is built entire of such canes. As a protection against the wind each shingle is fastened with nails. And the Great Khan has had it so designed that it can be moved wherever he fancies; for it is held in place by more than 200 cords of silk.
– The Travels, Marco Polo, 14th Century AD
[Image Credit: Xanadu by Sarel Theron]
