In the 13th-century Mongol capital Karakorum, the Great Khan Möngke had an enormous fountain in the form of a silver tree, which flowed with drinks. The English-born Franciscan William of Rubruck, who visited in 1254, described it: four silver serpents wound round the trunk, silver fruit hung from branches, and an angel with a trumpet on top turned when the tree needed filling. Pipes poured wine, mead, rice liquor and mare's milk (kumis) for the court. The Parisian goldsmith Guillaume Boucher, a captive, built it. Since the empire fell, the fountain has become a symbol of Mongol wealth and its eventual downfall.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.