The Travels of Marco Polo (1818)
The Travels of Marco Polo is a 1818 description and travel book written by Marco Polo.
In 1271 three Venetian merchants set out overland for the court of Kublai Khan, and one of them, young Marco, spent the next two decades in the Mongol emperor's service. Dictated years later to a fellow prisoner in Genoa, this account carries readers across deserts, mountain passes, and the trade cities of Asia toward Cathay. Polo describes paper money, coal, vast palaces, and customs no European had recorded. Fact and traveler's tale sit side by side, and later mapmakers pored over every page. It shaped how Europe imagined the wider world for centuries.
Quick answers
What is The Travels of Marco Polo about?
In 1271 three Venetian merchants set out overland for the court of Kublai Khan, and one of them, young Marco, spent the next two decades in the Mongol emperor's service. Dictated years later to a fellow prisoner in Genoa, this account carries readers across deserts, mountain passes, and the trade cities of Asia toward Cathay. Polo describes paper money, coal, vast palaces, and customs no European had recorded. Fact and traveler's tale sit side by side, and later mapmakers pored over every page. It shaped how Europe imagined the wider world for centuries.
When was The Travels of Marco Polo published?
The Travels of Marco Polo was published in 1818.
Who made The Travels of Marco Polo?
The Travels of Marco Polo was written by Marco Polo.
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The Travels of Marco Polo in our writing
- Companion guide: The Mongol Empire
A few thoughts on The Travels of Marco Polo
Nathan Drake chases Marco Polo's lost fleet across the Himalayas in Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, turning this medieval journey into a treasure hunt through Shambhala. For the same appetite for far-flung exploration and dangerous overland routes, the Netflix series Marco Polo dramatizes his years inside Kublai Khan's court, palace intrigue and all.
Adventurers who risk everything in foreign lands
Marco Polo's own account reads like a real medieval treasure hunt: deserts, mountain passes, and cities no European had mapped, crossed for profit and curiosity. These adventure games and comics chase that same restless nerve, sending their heroes into unfamiliar territory where the reward is as dangerous as the journey to reach it.
Foreigners who win over a powerful court
The Travels of Marco Polo is built on one improbable feat: a young Venetian talking his way into two decades of service at Kublai Khan's court. These shows and comics follow other outsiders proving their worth inside a foreign power structure, earning rank and trust in a world that owes them nothing.
Real people's own accounts of extraordinary lives
Marco Polo's Travels was dictated from memory to a fellow prisoner, one man's true account of a life spent somewhere few of his readers would ever go. These memoirs and firsthand writings share that same voice: real people setting down what they lived, from a swordsman's discipline to a mountaineer's near-fatal climb.