This is an accunt of a quest, a journey which began in the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem and took William Dalrymple and his companions across the width of Asia, along dusty, forgotten roads, through villages and cities full of unexpected hospitality and wildly improbable escapades, to Coleridge's Xanadu itself At once funny and knowledgeable, this account tells the story of the expedition in the best tradition of English travel writing