Marco Polo's Journey To A Brave New World

Marco Polo is a great explorer who was born in Venice, Italy around 1254. He was from a wealthy merchant family. He started to travel at the age of 17 with his father and uncle, Niccolò and Maffeo Polo. They were merchants who traded jewels with the Middle East through Asia. In 1271, the Polo family decided to go on a long, adventurous journey to China. They first traveled by sea to the Persian Gulf, and then were forced to take an ancient caravan route through present day Iraq, Iran, and Turkmenistan. They passed through many great cities and saw many sites including the holy city of Jerusalem, the mountains of the Hindu Kush, Persia, and the Gobi Desert. On the way he met a lot of different types of people and had many adventures. In the spring of 1275, they finally reached Shangdu, the summer residence of Kublai Khan. The route they took became known as The Silk Road. Marco lived in China for many years and learned to speak the language. Kublai Khan, the Mongol ruler of China at that time, really liked and trusted him and gave him several diplomatic missions and sent him as a messenger to travel to many parts of China and Asia. Therefore, he had experienced with many …show more content…
A few years after, Venice fought a war with the city of Genoa. He was put under arrest. While he was in prison, Marco met his inmate, Rustichello da Pisa, a writer of romance. He told detailed stories of his journeys and adventures to Rustichello, who was fascinated by Marco’s experiences. He later wrote all the stories down and became the coauthor of Macro’s book titled The Description of the World, later known as The Travels of Marco Polo. The book was very popular in Europe and was printed in French, Italian, and Latin. It also made Marco Polo a very famous explorer, who inspired future travelers and explorers, including Christopher