Last programme in the series about the Mongol hordes.
The Last Khan of Khans. "In
Xanadu did Kubla Khan a stately pleasure-dome decree...." remembered Coleridge, half a millennium later.
Khubilai, grandson of Genghis, was the most illustrious of all the Mongol Khans - not only the conqueror of China, but a creator of canals and cities, a barbarian turned patron of commerce and the arts. During his reign, the Mongol Empire reached its peak. His greatest achievement was Da-Du, an astonishing new capital, whose ruins now lie beneath the streets of Peking. Tonight's film re-creates the city of Da-Du as it was in its heyday.
Producer/Series producer Robert Marshall BBC BOOK: with colour photographs and maps, £17.99 from bookshops