The colorful tales Marco collected for Kublai provided the bulk of The Travels, and just as they entertained the khan, so too did they dazzle Europeans, with descriptions of many of the great cities of eastern China, Burma, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, west India, and Persia, alongside stories about Russia and the “Region of Darkness”—a place where pale-faced tribes lived in semipermanent night, trapping wild animals for their furs.
