Here we have Marco Polo and Kublai Khan travelling together. We actually shot this in Malaysia, and so we had to match to material we shot in Kazakhstan. So this is on the back lot and we set up these gerrs (people are more familiar with the Turkish term 'yurt', but Mongolians say 'gerr'). One of the most interesting historical threads in the show is the relationship between Marco Polo and Kublai Khan. Marco Polo’s been buried under this dry mythology for too long, and so few people realise that the bulk of his 17 years in China were spent in Kublai's service. We think of his famous travels, but other than his journey out there and his eventual journey home, all of his travels were in the service of Kublai Khan. He was sent on special missions and that began when Kublai realised that this young Venetian kid possessed what he called an “uncommon gift of perception.” The great Italian writer Italo Calvino picked up on that in his book Invisible Cities, where he portrayed Marco Polo and Kublai Khan as kindred dreamers. Picture: Phil Bray/Netflix

Credit : Phil Bray/Netflix