Marco Polo
Venetian explorer and merchant who travelled through Asia (1254-1324) · Italy · Historical Figures · Died at 69
Marco Polo is read about 5,261 times a day, in 185 languages.
A typical day, 30 days to 15 October 2026
The middle day of the days counted, so one week of news cannot move it. The line under it is the last 390 days, one point a day.
Something wrong?He walked to China in the 1270s and came back with stories no European had confirmed: paper money, coal that burned, a postal system spanning a continent.
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Photos 12
A commemorative plaque on the site of Casa Polo in Venice, part of the Teatro Malibran which was built upon Polo's house
Corte Seconda del Milion, Venice, next to Polo's house, is named after the nickname of Polo, Il Milione
A mosaic of Marco Polo displayed in the Palazzo Doria-Tursi, Genoa, Italy
A close-up of the Catalan Atlas depicting Marco Polo travelling to the East during the Pax Mongolica
San Lorenzo church in the sestiere of Castello (Venice), where Polo was buried. The photo shows the church as it is today, after the 1592 rebuilding.
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Born in Venice around 1254, Marco Polo met his merchant father and uncle for the first time in 1269, when they returned from Asia with an invitation from Kublai Khan. The three left for Cathay in 1271, traveling the Silk Road until they reached the Mongol court. Kublai Khan made Marco a foreign emissary; for 17 years he moved through China and Southeast Asia on diplomatic missions, seeing Myanmar, India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Vietnam. In 1291 the Polos escorted a Mongol princess to Persia, then made their way overland to Venice, arriving in 1295 after 24 years away. Captured in the war with Genoa, Marco dictated his account to a cellmate, Rustichello da Pisa - the book that introduced Europe to porcelain, gunpowder, and the mechanics of the largest empire on earth. Released in 1299, he became a wealthy merchant, married, had three children, and died in Venice in 1324.
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