<P> The book Coleridge was reading before he fell asleep was Purchas, his Pilgrimes, or Relations of the World and Religions Observed in All Ages and Places Discovered, from the Creation to the Present, by the English clergyman and geographer Samuel Purchas, published in 1613 . The book contained a brief description of Xanadu, the summer capital of the Mongol ruler Kublai Khan . The text about Xanadu in Purchas, His Pilgrimes, which Coleridge admitted he did not remember exactly, was: </P> <P> In Xandu did Cublai Can build a stately Pallace, encompassing sixteen miles of plaine ground with a wall, wherein are fertile Meddowes, pleasant Springs, delightfull streames, and all sorts of beasts of chase and game, and in the middest thereof a sumptuous house of pleasure, which may be moved from place to place . </P> <P> This quotation was based upon the writings of the Venetian explorer Marco Polo who is widely believed to have visited Xanadu in about 1275 . In about 1298--1299, he dictated a description of Xanadu which includes these lines: </P> <P> And when you have ridden three days from the city last mentioned (Cambalu, or modern Beijing), between north - east and north, you come to a city called Chandu, which was built by the Khan now reigning . There is at this place a very fine marble Palace, the rooms of which are all gilt and painted with figures of men and beasts and birds, and with a variety of trees and flowers, all executed with such exquisite art that you regard them with delight and astonishment . </P>

Summary of kubla khan or a vision in a dream