Marco Polo

In a life of ceaseless exploration, Marco Polo pushed out the borders of his narrow medieval world. Born in Venice in 1254, the young Marco Polo first met his father at age 15, when the elder Polo returned from a trading expedition to the East. The father's tales of the court of the Kublai Khan in China ignited a lifelong passion for adventure in the son. The Polos set out for China in 1271, traveling through the Middle East, across the Gobi Desert, to Khanbaliq in China. The journey took four years. Kublai Khan took a great liking to Marco Polo, employing him as a spy throughout his vast empire. Marco traveled and observed the cultures of Sumatra, Sri Lanka, and India in this capacity. His notes later became one of the world's great travel books, The Description of the World.National Geographic supports K-12 educators with ELA Common Core Resources.Visit www.natgeoed.org/commoncore for more information. 

In a life of ceaseless exploration, Marco Polo pushed out the borders of his narrow medieval world.

Born in Venice in 1254, the young Marco Polo first met his father at age 15, when the elder Polo returned from a trading expedition to the East. The father's tales of the court of the Kublai Khan in China ignited a lifelong passion for adventure in the son.

The Polos set out for China in 1271, traveling through the Middle East, across the Gobi Desert, to Khanbaliq in China. The journey took four years. Kublai Khan took a great liking to Marco Polo, employing him as a spy throughout his vast empire. Marco traveled and observed the cultures of Sumatra, Sri Lanka, and India in this capacity. His notes later became one of the world's great travel books, The Description of the World.

Marco Polo went to China. All over China today are remembrances of his visit with his father and uncle. Proof of his visit even resides in the Vatican World History Collection and in the world maps he left behind in their family library in Venice. If any young person would like an easy and enjoyable way to become acquainted with the story of Marco Polo, he has only to pick up this book.

Marco Polo’s account of his journey throughout the East in the thirteenth century was one of the earliest European travel narratives, and it remains the most important. The merchant-traveler from Venice, the first to cross the entire continent of Asia, provided us with accurate descriptions of life in China, Tibet, India, and a hundred other lands, and recorded customs, natural history, strange sights, historical legends, and much more. From the dazzling courts of Kublai Khan to the perilous deserts of Persia, no book contains a richer magazine of marvels than the Travels.

This edition, selected and edited by the great scholar Manuel Komroff, also features the classic and stylistically brilliant Marsden translation, revised and corrected, as well as Komroff’s Introduction to the 1926 edition.

Who was Marco Polo? Was he a merchant? A spy for the Chinese? The author of a travel book that inspired Christopher Columbus? He was all of these and more! Learn all about Marco Polo and his life, from the time he was born, to his twenty-four years in China, to his time in jail, up until his death! Filled with fun facts about the explorer and also of the times, this book is jam packed with loads of information that may truly surprise you.

His journey through the East began in 1271—when, still a teenager, he set out of Venice and found himself traversing the most exotic countries. His acceptance into the court of the great emperor Kublai Khan, and his service to the vast and dazzling Mongol empire, led him to places as far away as Tibet and Burma, lands rich with gems and gold and silk, but virtually unknown to Europeans.

Later, as a prisoner of war, Marco Polo would record the details of his remarkable travels across harsh deserts, great mountain ranges, and dangerous seas, as well as of his encounters with beasts and birds, plants and people. His amazing chronicle is both fascinating and awe-inspiring—and still serves as the most vivid depiction of the mysterious East in the Middle Ages.

Edited and with an Introduction by Milton Rugoff and an Afterword by Howard Mittelmark

Despite piracy, shepwreck, brigandage, and wild beasts, Polo moved in a world of highly organized commerce. This chronicle of his travels through Asia, whether read as fact or fiction, is alive with adventures, geographical information, and descriptions of natural phenomena.

Marco Polo’s account of his journey throughout the East in the thirteenth century was one of the earliest European travel narratives, and it remains the most important. The merchant-traveler from Venice, the first to cross the entire continent of Asia, provided us with accurate descriptions of life in China, Tibet, India, and a hundred other lands, and recorded customs, natural history, strange sights, historical legends, and much more. From the dazzling courts of Kublai Khan to the perilous deserts of Persia, no book contains a richer magazine of marvels than the Travels.

This edition, selected and edited by the great scholar Manuel Komroff, also features the classic and stylistically brilliant Marsden translation, revised and corrected, as well as Komroff’s Introduction to the 1926 edition.

Who was Marco Polo? Was he a merchant? A spy for the Chinese? The author of a travel book that inspired Christopher Columbus? He was all of these and more! Learn all about Marco Polo and his life, from the time he was born, to his twenty-four years in China, to his time in jail, up until his death! Filled with fun facts about the explorer and also of the times, this book is jam packed with loads of information that may truly surprise you.

The story of Marco Polo's famous adventures now in Spanish!

More than seven hundred years ago, Marco Polo traveled from the medieval city of Venice to the fabled kingdom of the great Kublai Khan, seeing new sights and riches that no Westerner had ever before witnessed. But did Marco Polo experience the things he wrote about? Young readers are presented with the facts in this entertaining, highly readable Quien fue . . . ? biography. Over one hundred black-and-white illustrations bring Marco Polo's story to life.