Marco Polo

Who Was Marco Polo?

Marco Polo was born in Italy on September 15, 1254. His parents were nobles. He Grew up and lived in Italy. He was raised up there. Marco polo is a famous traveler who traveled most of the European and Asian world. He was one of the first people to travel the Silk Road which him and his father Niccolò and his uncle Maffeo called Cathy at that time. His book popularized in his time far more than any other book about travels. He had many a great adventures in his time and traveled most of the known world and returned home to his life in Venice, where he died at the age of 73 due to natural causes.

ITALY

He started his travels In Venice Italy, and then he made his trek across Asia and Europe. Down the middle east to Iran, to a small place called Hormuz (its an island) then from there to Beijing china, where he served under the rule of a certain someone and then on…. He started his trek from the sinking city of Venice, Italy. He Left Venice at the age of about his late twenties. He Left Venice for his travels and he decided to write a book on his ways. In His travels he started a book called “The Million” or “The Travels”.

ACRE

Not much happened in Acre it was basically a pit stop before they reached the first destination which was Hormuz. Acre is located in Modern day Palestine on the North West side of that region. Marco Polo met up with some People there as well. Through Acre Marco had to travel inwards to get the sea so he could heads on to the Persian Gulf so he could continue on to Hormuz which is located 5 miles of the shores of the Persian Gulf, or Iran. His trek was through the Middle east riding camels in the hot barren desert is what was more important that the stop itself.

HORMUZ

Hormuz was known to be the trading center at the time. And this was one of the stops Marco Polo made. Hormuz is a small Island, and there is only one village there and in the summer the population decreased by half. Here one of his first stops Marco found some difficulties… He wanted to cross the Persian Gulf all the way to China but there was one problem. The ships were made from scraps…these were meant for short voyages to Persia and back barley making it in one piece. So they decided to find another rout. "wretched affairs....only stitched together with twine made from the husk of the Indian nut”, said Marco Polo.

INDIA

In India Marco Polo did some sight seeing, now what would a vacation be if you just stayed in the hotel? Well Marco didn’t have that luxury so he went sight seeing. He went to the tomb of Saint Thomas in a place not far from Madras. Then he went to some shores and wrote about the beauty of Some Islands that were evidently great, but he hadn’t stopped there, on the island. In his books he writes how beautiful India, and how seeing the tomb of the Saint was a somewhat spiritual journey. Now who would want to stay in a hotel when they miss all this beauty and wonder?

CHINA

Marco Polo served under the Chinese emperors Rule for a while then Kublai Khan. He saw the pretty eye of one Princess that was the Emperors daughter… which would have caused some problems if he loved her so he proposed to teach her how to kiss, the European way. So this was his way of getting close to the emperor’s daughter. Marco Polo brought back some souvenirs from China to Venice. For instance people thought that spaghetti came from Italy! Well it did but the idea from it came from… China, the Chinese noodles. Marco Polo brought some stuff back with him. He also brought back with him something china is most famous for! Fire works!

MONGOLIA

Marco Polo traveled through a couple of places before he reached Mongolia, he had to go through Thailand to get there, his enitial purpose was to get back home to Venice but he had a run in with a certain someone who was very notorious in that area, if you haven’t guessed it already I’ll tell you who this person is… Kublai Khan. I mentioned a special person before and this is him. At this time Marco was seventeen and he impressed Kublai khan with his extreme knowledge of language and the geography of lands, so Kublai Khan made him his political advisor… what an honor.

Over All Impact

What do you think would have happened to Marco polo if he had traveled all this way and brought back some papers and said, “Well here it is…?” I think some people would be pretty stupefied because they wouldn’t know what to think of such a waste of a life time for one or two measly books… Bu he didn’t do that so we don’t have to worry about it. But he did bring back a couple of things. He brought back fireworks from china and noodles. So basically without noodles the thought for spaghetti wouldn’t have come to mind, so thank the Chinese for that one. One thing he didn’t bring back was his lesson to the Chinese emperor daughter, he taught her how to kiss… You can figure the rest out from there. Don’t get the wrong impression

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