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Marco Polo

Today, traveling from Europe to Asia takes only a few hours by airplane. More than seven hundred years ago, however, such a journey could take many years and was full of danger. One of the most famous travelers of that time was Marco Polo, a young merchant from Venice, Italy. The book he later wrote about his travels changed the way Europeans saw the world.

Marco Polo was only seventeen when he set out with his father and uncle in 1271. The three men crossed wide deserts, climbed steep mountains, and rode camels for thousands of miles. After more than three years of hardship, they finally reached China, which Europeans called "Cathay." There, they were welcomed by the powerful emperor Kublai Khan, who ruled over a vast empire.

The emperor was impressed by the clever young foreigner and gave him important duties. For about seventeen years, Marco Polo served the emperor and traveled across the empire. He observed many things that were unknown in Europe at that time. He saw paper money used as currency, black stones (coal) that burned like wood, and huge ships carrying hundreds of passengers along rivers.

When Marco Polo finally returned home in 1295, his neighbors did not believe his stories. They thought he had made up his adventures. Years later, while he was held in a prison after a war between Venice and Genoa, he told his stories to a fellow prisoner, a writer named Rustichello. Together they produced a book known as The Travels of Marco Polo. The book spread quickly across Europe and made readers curious about the riches of Asia. It is even said that Christopher Columbus carried a copy of it on his voyages two centuries later.