Marco Polo

Venetian explorer and merchant who travelled through Asia (1254–1324)

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Lived 1254–1324, aged 70Italy

Italy PoliticiansPublic Official

Wikipedia
183 languages
Cross-language footprint
Global rank
#241
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Era
1254–1324
Aged 70
Known for
América do Surf
2005

Summary

Updated 2026-08-13

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. The book he dictated from a Genoese prison cell became the West's first detailed map of the Mongol world—and the reason Columbus carried a marked-up copy when he sailed west.

Biography

About

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 Ge…

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