![]() In order to learn more about Christianity and Western culture, Khan sends the Polo brothers back to Italy with the task of asking the Pope for 100 learned Westerners and oil from the lamp of the Holy Sepulcher. Kublai Khan is said to have been very intrigued by these two European men (Europeans were very rare in China at the time), and officially invites them to spend time with him in China so that he can learn more about Europe. ![]() Kublai Khan was the grandson of Genghis Khan and ruler of the great Mongol Empire, which at its height was one of the largest land empires in history and governed approximately one-fourth of the world’s population at the time. During the Polo brothers’ time in Bukhara, Uzbekistan they are approached by an ambassador of Kublai Khan and given the message that the emperor would like to meet them. Meanwhile, Marco Polo tells us in his book that his father and uncle after several years of trading in Constantinople (present day Istanbul, Turkey) would travel further southeast, spending time in present-day Greece, Ukraine, Russia, Uzbekistan, and China. Sadly, his mother would die when he was young and Marco would be raised by other relatives until his father’s return. During this time, young Polo would receive an informal education, learning the mercantile business and how to read and write Italian. His father Niccolò and uncle Maffeo were wealthy merchants and had set off together on a long 9-year trading journey when Marco was a young boy. He grew up in a Catholic family and lived his early life alone with his mother. Very little is known about his childhood except details gained from his own book. Marco Polo is believed to have been born in 1254 in Venice, Italy (a few believe he was born on the island of Korčula in present day Croatia). Depiction of Polo in Tartar costume Marco Polo: The Man and His Incredible Journeyįirst we’ll delve into what we know (or what is commonly believed) about Marco Polo’s early life in Italy, his incredible journey to along the Silk Road, his stay in China, his return, and the famous travelogue. Intrigued? I was very interested in learning more about this famous man and will share what I found during my research about the man, his amazing travels, and the legacy of Marco Polo. Some historians even doubt whether Marco Polo existed at all. The world that Polo described seemed quite strange and unbelievable to most readers, and even today many historians question the veracity of many of his stories. Polo’s book, Description of the World, offered one of the first detailed descriptions of the then mysterious eastern cultures to Europeans and would even inspire Christopher Columbus. The famous Venetian is believed to have left Venice at age 17 to embark on a 24-year journey through the Persian Gulf and Asia, spending much of this time in China in the court of the great Mongol emperor Kublai Khan. The Italian Marco Polo is probably the world’s most famous traveler and one of the world’s first travel writers.
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