After enduring decades of travel and surviving several brushes with death, the Polos encountered their biggest hurdles when they tried to return to Italy. Worried that their departure would make him appear weak, the elderly Kublai Kahn initially refused to release his favorite envoys from service.
Marco later wrote that the members of his company were among the only survivors of a deadly sea voyage that claimed hundreds of lives. As the travelers passed through the kingdom of Trebizond, in modern-day Turkey, the local government robbed them of some 4, Byzantine gold coins.
Despite this significant loss, the Polos retained enough of their cargo to arrive home in as wealthy men. According to one account, the Venetians concealed most of their gems by sewing the precious stones into the linings of their coats. Readers had some reason to be skeptical: Polo and his ghostwriter, Rustichello, were prone to exaggeration and flights of fancy.
For instance, the famous traveler often fictitiously inserted himself into battle scenes and court intrigues. While most modern historians still believe the bulk of his book to be factual, others have dismissed it as an outright fabrication and claim that Polo never even made it to China. For his part, Marco never admitted to a single lie. Tribal groups had soon reclaimed land along the once-prosperous trading route known as the Silk Road , effectively cutting off a vital artery connecting East and West.
With the land route to China growing increasingly dangerous, few travelers dared set out on wide-ranging journeys for several years. In fact, Polo reportedly never left Venetian territory for the last two decades of his life. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us!
When they reached the outskirts of the Taklamakan Desert, they took the southern route, passing through Yarkand, Khotan, Cherchen, and Lop-Nor. Marco Polo describes Yarkand as a place where the locals are extremely prone to goiter, which he thought was caused by the drinking water there. Goitre is an enlarged thyroid gland, often caused by iodine deficiency.
Polo aslo writes about a province called Pem which is rich in jasper and chalcedony; a translucid kind of jasper.
And the men, wherever they go, take wives in the same way. It is also the location of several important cities along the Silk Road. It consists entirely of mountains and sands and valleys. There is nothing at all to eat. Still, his writing also suggests that the route through the desert was well-established at this point in history. In Suchow, Marco Polo took a break from traveling and stayed for a year. Situated in an oasis that included the Crescent Lake, Suchow was one of the major stops on the southern Silk Road, and also a stop on the main road going from India via Lhasa to Mongolia and southern Siberia.
Suchow controlled the entrance to the narrow Hexi Corridor, which was the most important route between North China and the Tarim Basin and Central Asia. Kublai Khan new that they were on their way, and had sent a royal escort to greet them. The Great Khan bade them rise and received them honorably and entertained them with good cheer.
He asked many questions about their condition and how they fared after their departure. The brothers assured him that they had indeed fared well, since they found him well and flourishing. Then they presented the privileges and letters which the Pope had sent, with which he was greatly pleased, and handed over the holy oil, which he received with joy and prized very hightly.
When the Great Khan saw Marco, who was then a young stripling, he asked who he was. What need to make a long story of it? Great indeed were the mirth and merry-making with which the Great khan and all his Court welcomed the arrival of these emissaries. And they were well served and attended to in all their needs. They stayed at Court and had a place of honor above the other barons. Kublai Khan took a liking to the young Marco Polo and appointed him to high posts in his administration.
Already well-traveled and capable of speaking several different languages, Polo was sent by the Khan on a number of special missions to various places in China, Burma, and India.
Many of the places that Marco Polo visited during these missions were remote ones that no European would visit and write about again until the 19th century. When the Kublai Khan was in his late 70s, the Polo family began to worry about what would happen to them when he died. The Polos had amassed great amounts of gold and jewelry, but would they be able to take it out of China without the protection of the Khan?
At the same time, the Khan really enjoyed their company and was reluctant to let them go. They were assigned one last task: escorting the Mongol princess Kokachin to her betrothed Persian prince Arghun.
Various theories have been proposed, including scurvy, cholera, drowin, pirate attacks, and hostile natives. When they finally reached Persian land, they found out that Prince Arghun had died two years ago. While in Persia, the Polos also learned that Kublai Khan had died.
Even from beyond the grave, the khan was a powerful man, and the Polos were amply supplied with horses, provisions, and escorts that could take them through dangerous passages and show them the right routes. Eventually, the Polos reached Trebizon, a city on the Black Sea from which they could continue their journey by ship again.
The Polos' journey took place on land, and they were forced to cut through challenging and sometimes harsh territory. But through it all, Polo reveled in the adventure.
His later memory for the places and cultures he witnessed was remarkable and exceptionally accurate. As they made their way through the Middle East, Polo absorbed its sights and smells. His account of the Orient, especially, provided the western world with its first clear picture of the East's geography and ethnic customs. Hardships, of course, came his way. In what is now Afghanistan, Polo was forced to retreat to the mountains in order to recoup from an illness he'd contracted.
Crossing the Gobi desert, meanwhile, proved long and, at times, arduous. It consists entirely of mountains and sands and valleys. There is nothing at all to eat. Finally, after four years of travel, the Polos reached China and Kublai Khan, who was staying at his summer palace known as Xanadu, a grand marble architectural wonder that dazzled young Polo. The Polos had originally planned to be gone for only a few years.
However, they were away from Venice for more than 23 years. Debate has swirled among historians as to whether Polo ever really made it to China. There is no evidence outside his famous book that he traveled so far east. Yet his knowledge of the culture and its customs are hard to dismiss. His later account told of Khan's extensive communication system, which served as the foundation for his rule. Polo's book, in fact, devotes five pages to the elaborate structure, describing how the empire's information highway efficiently and economically covered millions of square miles.
Khan's acceptance of the Polos offered the foreigners unparalleled access to his empire. Niccolo and Maffeo were granted important positions in the leader's Court.
Polo, too, impressed Khan, who thought highly of the young man's abilities as a merchant. Polo's immersion into the Chinese culture resulted in him mastering four languages. Kublai Khan eventually employed Polo as a special envoy he sent to far-flung areas of Asia never before explored by Europeans, including Burma, India and Tibet.
With Polo, as always, was a stamped metal packet from Khan himself that served as his official credentials from the powerful leader. As the years wore on, Polo was promoted for his work. He served as governor of a Chinese city. Later, Khan appointed him as an official of the Privy Council. At one point, he was the tax inspector in the city of Yanzhou. From his travels, Polo amassed not only great knowledge about the Mongol empire but incredible wonder.
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