great way round.[NOTE 9] This roof is made too with such strength and
solidity that it is fit to last for ever.

[On the interior side of the Palace are large buildings with halls and
chambers, where the Emperor's private property is placed, such as his
treasures of gold, silver, gems, pearls, and gold plate, and in which
reside the ladies and concubines. There he occupies himself at his own
convenience, and no one else has access.]

Between the two walls of the enclosure which I have described, there are
fine parks and beautiful trees bearing a variety of fruits. There are
beasts also of sundry kinds, such as white stags and fallow deer, gazelles
and roebucks, and fine squirrels of various sorts, with numbers also of
the animal that gives the musk, and all manner of other beautiful
creatures,[NOTE 10] insomuch that the whole place is full of them, and no
spot remains void except where there is traffic of people going and
coming. [The parks are covered with abundant grass; and the roads through
them being all paved and raised two cubits above the surface, they never
become muddy, nor does the rain lodge on them, but flows off into the
meadows, quickening the soil and producing that abundance of herbage.]

From that corner of the enclosure which is towards the north-west there
extends a fine Lake, containing foison of fish of different kinds which
the Emperor hath caused to be put in there, so that whenever he desires
any he can have them at his pleasure. A river enters this lake and issues
from it, but there is a grating of iron or brass put up so that the fish
cannot escape in that way.[NOTE 11]

Moreover on the north side of the Palace, about a bow-shot off, there is a
hill which has been made by art [from the earth dug out of the lake]; it
is a good hundred paces in height and a mile in compass. This hill is
entirely covered with trees that never lose their leaves, but remain ever
green. And I assure you that wherever a beautiful tree may exist, and the
Emperor gets news of it, he sends for it and has it transported bodily
with all its roots and the earth attached to them, and planted on that
hill of his. No matter how big the tree may be, he gets it carried by his
elephants; and in this way he has got together the most beautiful
collection of trees in all the world. And he has also caused the whole
hill to be covered with the ore of azure,[NOTE 12] which is very green.
And thus not only are the trees all green, b