NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY 1FROM THE EDITORAmy Briggs, Executive EditorXanadu: The name captures the imagination. Its most famous
appearance is in a 1797 poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge that opens with
the words “In Xanadu did Kubla Khan / A stately pleasure-dome decree.”
Coleridge drew his inspiration from the writings of Venetian explorer
Marco Polo, who sensationalized Kublai Khan and his summer estate,
called Shangdu in his 13th-century account. Polo’s account spares nothing
in describing the lush gardens with thousands of trees, massive chambers
gilded with silver and gold, and a diverse menagerie of animals including
leopards, hawks, and 10,000 snow-white horses.
Kublai Khan and his summer palace are now shorthand for fabulous
wealth, luxury, and fantasy (in 1941’s Citizen Kane, could Charles Foster
Kane’s estate be named anything other than Xanadu?)—but celebrating the
splendor often leaves out much of the history.
Through his strength as a warrior and his wisdom as a statesman, Kublai
Khan commanded the largest contiguous land empire the world has ever
known. He united China and stretched the Mongol Empire from Persia to
the Pacific. The rich story of Kublai Khan is so much more than Xanadu.