In Xanadu did Kubla Khan a stately pleasure-dome decree

Submitted by Milica on Sun, 2009-08-02 08:21
Marco Polo, in his travel notes, wrote of Kublai Khan's massive capital, Xanadu. Now Chinese archaeologists believe they can reconstruct a layout of the city. The basis for their claim is a three-month long excavation of Yuan Shangdu, which they think is the historic Xanadu.

Shangdu was built in 1256 by Kublai Khan, the first emperor of Yuan Dynasty. The recent dig has led to the discovery of moat and one of the largest buildings in the city. "We found the royal mansion of Muqingge built on a drained lake is of Han nationality characters, since the Mongolian emperor mainly deployed Han workers to build Shangdu," said Yang Xingyu, a senior archaeologist with the Inner Mongolia regional bureau of cultural relics.