The first place Sir John Mandeville describes at length on his journey to the Holy Land is the city of Constantinople and the surrounding lands belonging to the Byzantine Empire. Mandeville seems mainly concerned with religion; the first thing he notes about the city is the Hagia Sophia, which he misidentifies as dedicated to St. Sophie. Outside, he describes an equestrian statue of the Emperor Justinian which he says used to hold an apple but had since fallen off, mirroring how the Byzantine Empire had lost much of its territory.  Mandeville moves on to describe the many relics housed in Constantinople, such as one of the nails that held Jesus on the Cross and half of the crown of thorns which he says was actually made of sea rushes. In this passage, Mandeville takes long asides to inform the reader on various bits of lore about these relics. He says the Cross was made from four different kinds of wood, that the other half of the crown is in Paris, and more. Along with relics, Mandeville recounts the many saints that are buried in the city such as St Anne, St John Chrysostom, and St Luke. Aside from these Religious matters, he details other buildings in Constantinople, such as the city’s walls, cisterns, and beautiful palace which he says is for jousting.

Along with Constantinople, Mandeville talks about other parts of Greece. He lists many islands such as Chalcis and Lemnos, as well as the famous mountains of Olympus and Athos, the latter of which he claims is so high that no animals can live there and ink never fades. His account is also punctuated with lore from Ancient times. He says that nearby to Constantinople is a plain where the city of Troy used to be, makes note of Aristotle’s tomb at Stagira to which people worship like he were a saint, and tells of an inscription supposedly made by Hermes Trismegistus.

On the subject of the people living there, Mandeville simply says that “There are many languages spoken and nations obedient to the Emperor, to wit Turcopoles, Pechenegs, and Cumans, and Thrace and Macedonia (of which Alexander was king), and many others. The ethnographic detail that most interests him is the differences between Catholicism and Greek Orthodoxy, which he says is very different. He says that Greeks believe the Holy Ghost only proceeds from the Father, that they do not venerate the Pope as Christ’s vicar on Earth and are scornful of any attempt to get them to, and that they practice lent and other feasts and sacraments differently. Mandeville makes sure to note that corruption is not limited to the Western Church, as scandals like simony take place.

Because this section of the book is framed as a pilgrimage, and that he claims that he especially wishes for people that want to go on one to read it, it is no wonder that Mandeville is so preoccupied with religion in his description of Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire. A prospective pilgrim would read the work with an eye to what places they could stop and worship at, and those that could only go on pilgrimages by reading such works would be grateful of the descriptions and the details of Christian lore that Mandeville sprinkles throughout. The differences in Western and Eastern Christianity would also be of interest to his religiously motivated audience, not just himself. He is also clearly writing for a literate audience, who would be familiar with his references to the Trojan War and Aristotle. As he notes, Greece is the first region where cultural and religious differences are quite visible, which he says is intriguing for many people to learn about. This anthropological curiosity overrides other concerns, with Mandeville silent on the physical aspect of travel aside from listing cities one passes on the journey. He does not describe how long he spent, where he stayed, the food, etc. Mandeville simply is not interested in describing them.