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Marco
Polo
1254 Marco Polo was born
in Venice,Italy .His parents were wealthy from trading.
1271
He and his father
and uncle began a journey to China.
1. They traveled from Venice to Palestine(Israel) overland to the
Persian
Gulf; through Iran to central Asia;
over the Pamir Mtns. to China; and across the Gobi Desert to the court of Kublai Khan in
1275.
The Polos were the first Europeans to visit most of the territory they
traveled through.
2. Marco Polo worked for Kublai Khan, and was for three years
governor
of a Chinese city . His father and
uncle served as military advisers to Kublai Khan.
3. After 17 years, in 1292, they left China by boat escorting a Mongol
princess to Iran.
They then traveled overland to the Black
Sea, and past Constantinople , arriving home to Venice in 1295.
They
had
been gone 24 years !
1298-
Marco Polo
was taken prisoner in a battle between the cities of Venice and Genoa.
He told a fellow prisoner the details of his travels,which was made into a book.
In 1299 he was released and
returned
to Venice.
With
the jewels and
pearls he brought back, he lived in luxury until he died in Venice in
1324
at the age of 70.
Marco
Polo's book, The
Travels of Marco Polo , is perhaps the most famous travel
book
in history.
1.) It
told of many
new things: paper money, coal used for heat, new animals, new and
plentiful
spices, beautiful cities and palaces,
government storehouses for food, and messenger services
2.) It
gave medieval
Europe its first knowledge and accurate maps of China and Asia
.
3.) It
inspired Christopher
Columbus (and many other explorers) to search for quick ways to get to
Asia by sailing around Africa or
even west across the Atlantic !
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