Marco Polo

Marco Polo

Marco Polo - strong, and mighty explorer - is famous for his travels in Asia. This mighty traveler was born in Venice, Italy in 1254. Sadly, his mother died when he was very young, and his father and uncle were successful merchants in Asia. Most of his childhood was spent alone and without a parent. During his lifetime he had many adventures and explored new places with his father and uncle by his side. Marco’s father, Niccolo, and uncle, Maffeo Polo were quite the inspiration for him. I proudly chose this explorer because I wanted to know much more about this man who was the inspiration for many other explorers.

Once again traveling to Asia, Niccolo and Maffeo brought Marco with them. Even though the adventure was difficult and tough, Marco loved every minute. After four years went by on sea, there ship finally reached China. Although they planned only to stay in China for a couple of years, they ended up staying for seventeen years! Also, while in China in they met a man named Kublai Khan, who was fascinated by Marco. Since Marco was such a young merchant. After Marco got a little older, Kublai sent him so many places all over Asia. For instance, he sailed to Burma, India and Tibet. After a very long seventeen years went by, they decided it was time to go home. This didn’t please Khan, but after begging them to stay he finally gave in and let them go home. They had hundreds of passengers and sailors with them on their trip home. Because of sickness, disease and storm only eighteen people were still living by the time they got back to Venice. Luckily, the Polo’s were among the eighteen survivors. When in Venice for only a couple of years Marco declared war on Genoa. Unfortunately, Marco was put in Genoa’s prison. While there he told stories about his travels to his cellmate, and later on, published