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“In the Footsteps of Marco Polo” chronicles the journey of two ordinary guys as they set out to follow Polo's historic route. Equal parts travelogue, adventu...
- 86 min
- 180.1K
- PBS America
Join us on an incredible adventure as we trace the footsteps of Marco Polo, the Venetian merchant whose travels across the Silk Road introduced Europe to the...
- 1 min
- GGMEDIA
May 6, 2023 · 2023 May 6. Marco Polo’s legendary journey from Venice to the far reaches of the Mongol Empire, which he started in 1271, was a monumental leap of human exploration. His travels 700 years ago...
- 142 min
- 53.5K
- Chronicle - Medieval History Documentaries
Apr 7, 2024 · Tracing Marco Polo's footsteps along the Silk Road. Venetian explorer, merchant, and writer Marco Polo died 700 years ago, in the year 1324. In his travels, which started at the age of 17...
- 3 min
- Overview
- Travels of the Polo family
- Polo’s journey to Asia
The Polos were likely shrewd, alert, and courageous; they traded with the Middle East and acquired considerable wealth and prestige. Marco Polo’s father, Niccolò, and uncle, Maffeo, continued this legacy. Traveling east as far as Mongol emperor Kublai Khan’s summer residence, Shangdu, they established friendly relations with him before returning to Europe as his ambassadors.
What did Marco Polo do?
Marco Polo was 17 or 18 when he began his journey from Venice to the farthest reaches of the Mongol empire. Living among the emperor’s dominions, with his father and uncle, as an advisor and emissary for 16 or 17 years, he returned to Venice by way of Hormuz (aboard ship) and Constantinople (overland).
Why was Marco Polo so influential?
Marco Polo’s account in Il milione opened new vistas to the European mind, and, as Western horizons expanded, Polo’s legacy grew as well. The wealth of new geographic information recorded by Polo was widely used in the late 15th and the 16th centuries, during the age of the great European voyages of discovery and conquest.
What were Marco Polo’s other accomplishments in Asia?
Polo’s way was paved by the pioneering efforts of his ancestors, especially his father, Niccolò, and his uncle, Maffeo. The family had traded with the Middle East for a long time, acquiring considerable wealth and prestige. Although it is uncertain if the Polos were of the nobility, the matter was of little importance in Venice, a city of republican and mercantile traditions.
The family appears to have been shrewd, alert, and courageous; about 1260 they foresaw a political change in Constantinople (e.g., the overthrow of the Crusaders who had ruled since 1204 by Michael VIII Palaeologus in 1261), liquidated their property there, invested their capital in jewels, and set off for the Volga River, where Berke Khan, sovereign of the western territories in the Mongol Empire, held court at Sarai or Bulgar. The Polos apparently managed their affairs well at Berke’s court, where they doubled their assets. When political events prevented their return to Venice, they traveled eastward to Bukhara (Bokhara) and ended their journey in 1265, probably at the grand khan’s summer residence, Shangdu (immortalized as Xanadu by English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge). Establishing friendly relations with the great Kublai Khan, they eventually returned to Europe as his ambassadors, carrying letters asking the pope to send Kublai 100 intelligent men “acquainted with the Seven Arts”; they also bore gifts and were asked to bring back oil from the lamp burning at the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.
Little is known about Marco’s early years except that he probably grew up in Venice. He was age 15 or 16 when his father and uncle returned to meet him and learned that the pope, Clement IV, had recently died. Niccolò and Maffeo remained in Venice anticipating the election of a new pope, but in 1271, after two years of waiting, they departed with Marco for the Mongol court. In Acre (now in Israel) the papal legate, Teobaldo of Piacenza, gave them letters for the Mongol emperor. The Polos had been on the road for only a few days when they heard that their friend Teobaldo had been elected pope as Gregory X. Returning to Acre, they were given proper credentials, and two friars were assigned to accompany them, though they abandoned the Polos shortly after the expedition resumed.
Britannica Quiz
Exploration and Discovery
From Acre the travelers proceeded to Ayas (“Laiazzo” in Marco’s writings, now Yumurtalik, on the Gulf of İskenderun, also called the Gulf of Alexandretta, in southeastern Turkey). During the early part of 1272, they probably passed through Erzurum, in what is now eastern Turkey, and Tabrīz, in what is now northern Iran, later crossing inhospitable deserts infested with brigands before reaching Hormuz on the Persian Gulf. There the Polos decided not to risk a sea passage to India and beyond but to proceed overland to the Mongol capital.
They next traveled through deserts of “surpassing aridity” toward the Khorasan region in what is now eastern Iran. Turning gradually to the northeast, they reached more hospitable lands; Badakhshān (“Balascian”), in Afghanistan, in particular, pleased the travelers. Marco suggests that they remained there for a year; detained, perhaps, by illness (possibly malaria) that was cured by the benign climate of the district. It is also believed that Marco visited territories to the south (other parts of Afghanistan, Kafiristan in the Hindu Kush, Chitral in what is now Pakistan, and perhaps Kashmir) during this period. It is, however, difficult to establish which districts he traversed and which he may have described from information gathered en route.
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Feb 11, 2019 · The video and its description text are provided by Youtube. This website claims no authorship of this content; we are republishing it for educational purposes. Cite This Work
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Jan 8, 2024 · Filled with wonders, Marco Polo's tales are the first European account of the Silk Road. But, 700 years after the famed Venetian merchant and explorer's death, can they be trusted?
