Polo, Marco

Polo, Marco (about 1254-about 1324), Italian explorer.

Marco Polo was born in Venice. At this time, the city was a great center of trading and his father, Nicolo, and his uncle, Maffeo, were both merchants. Usually they traded by ship between Venice and Constantinople (Istanbul) in Turkey. But once they had traveled by land to Cathay (China).

In 1271, they set out on this journey again and they took young Marco with them. Four years later they reached the court of Kublai Khan in Cambaluc (Beijing) and stayed there until 1292.

Marco was given many jobs by Kublai Khan and traveled to many parts of China. With his relatives, he traveled home by sea to Persia and then overland to Constantinople and Venice. The three arrived home twenty-four years after setting out, and they had many startling stories to tell.

Three years later, Marco Polo was taken prisoner in a sea battle between Venice and Genoa. In prison he wrote the story of his travels and this was later published as a book, The Travels of Marco Polo.

At this time, people knew almost nothing about life in the Far East, and Polo's book provided a great deal of information about it.