MARCO POLO

Marco Polo, an Italian merchant was probably the first explorer and travel writer to write an exhaustive travel account. Born in the year 1254 in Venice (Italy), Marco Polo travelled from Europe to Asia in 1271-95. He travelled to China for seventeen of those years. His Il million (The Million), known in English as the “Travel of Marco Polo”, is a classic of travel literature.

 Marco Polo’s family was wealthy and rich that is because he received a good education and he learnt about classical authors, the theology of the Latin Church, and both Italian and French. Marco Polo hailed from a family of sailors. In ancient Venice, he started his first voyage along with his father Niccolo and his uncle Maffeo at the age of seventeen in 1271 A.D. From Venice, they passed through Armenia, Persia and Afghanistan and over the Pamir Mountains to reach china through the Silk Route. They also travelled to Istanbul and then reached the kingdom of Gorgia in Southern Caucasus.

When Marco Polo passed through the great Gobi Desert, which is more than 500,000 square miles (805,000 kms) of sand, he described its vastness in the following words: “This desert is reported to be so long that it would take a year to go from one end to another end, and at the narrowest point it takes a month to cross it. There is nothing at all to eat”. Gobi Desert was part of the Mongolian Empire ruled by the great Kublai Khan (grandson of Genghis khan and the founder of the Yuan Dynasty in 13^th century China). After passing through the Gobi Desert, Marco Polo with his father and uncle went to Schow (Duhuang) in Tangut province, which is today known as Tangku, a major city in China. They  stayed there for a year and later Marco Polo was appointed by Kublai khan as a courtier in Cambaluc or Khanbalig (meaning “The city of Khan”) which later became the part of Beiging. Marco Polo was also provided a linguist in Kublai Khan’s capital. Kublai Khan had presented them with a golden tablet ( 1 foot long and 3 inches wide) inscribed with these words: “ By the strength of the eternal heaven, holy be the Khan’s name, let him that pays him not reverence be killed.” This golden tablet was like a VIP passport, authorizing the travelers to receive horses, lodging, food and guides as they required. They stayed there for seventeen years and Marco Polo had mastered four languages at that time. He learnt about trade, industry and new paper currency that were much easier to transport than heavy gold or silver.

In 1293, they began their journey towards their home by ship. They took a sea route and passed the South China Sea to Samarta and the Indian Ocean and finally reached Hormuz. The voyage took two years and they are believed to have then visited Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Sri Lanka enroute to India. He also touched several coastal cities of India, such as, Madras (now Chennai), Calicut on the Malabar Coast in Kerela, and Thane near Mumbai.

They returned to Venice in A.D. and stayed there. Marco Polo died on January, 1324 at the age of seventy and on his deathbed he uttered his famous last words: “I have only told the half of what I saw”.

His book called “The Description of the World” or “The Travels of Marco Polo” was one of the most popular books in Medieval Europe and became a best seller, even though some people thought his stories were too incredible to be true.