Here are several fascinating facts about the life of the great traveler, Marco Polo:
- When his father and uncle undertook their first journey through unknown lands (as you can read in the biography of Marco Polo), Marco, who did not accompany them, was a six-year-old boy. When they finally returned, he was already fifteen years old. During those nine years of their absence, his mother passed away.
- It was due to a war (a conflict over the succession of the great Khan Mongke) that Marco Polo’s father and uncle were forced to alter their return route to their homeland of Venice. To avoid the dangers of battle, they decided to travel around the Caspian Sea to reach Persia.
- In 1298, when Marco Polo was captured as the captain of a Venetian frigate in a battle against the Genoese, the number of men taken into captivity with him reached an astonishing 7,000.
- Marco Polo’s most famous book, “The Book of the Marvels of the World,” was dictated to a writer named Rustichello da Pisa, with whom he shared a prison cell. From memory, the traveler recounted all his experiences, which eventually became a bestseller. In fact, thanks to the book’s enormous sales, Marco Polo and his work became known in his time as “Il Milione” (The Million). The Polo family’s wealth, however, came from their commercial activities in the East, as he acknowledges in his popular book.
- Some of the places that Marco Polo visited and “discovered” on his travels are still standing. This is not entirely the case for the Iranian city of Bam, which was devastated by an earthquake in December 2003 that left 26,000 dead, nor for other cities he visited like Kashgar and Khotan in China.
- Two main circumstances prompted Marco Polo to return to his homeland after more than twenty years abroad. On one hand, there was his deep desire to go home. On the other, there was the fear that once his protector, the 71-year-old Kublai Khan, died, he would not be allowed to leave the country with all his riches. He imagined that the Khan’s succession would create a state of war in the region.
- However, Kublai Khan granted him permission to leave. The Khan placed 14 ships at his disposal and entrusted him with letters and gifts for the Pope and the kings of Spain, France, and England.
Related story: Biography of Marco Polo
