Marco Polo Timeline

Italian Explorer and storyteller Marco Polo wrote about his traveling experiences on the Silk Road in his book Il Milione (The Travels of Marco Polo). On his 24-year journey, Polo traveled farther into Asia than any previous Western explorer.

1. "When a man is riding through this desert by night and for some reason - falling asleep or anything else - he gets separated from his companions and wants to rejoin them, he hears spirit voices talking to him as if they were his companions, sometimes even calling him by name. Often these voices lure him away from the path and he never finds it again, and many travelers have got lost and died because of this."
2. "I believe it was God's will that we should come back, so that men might know the things that are in the world, since, as we have said in the first chapter of this book, no other man, Christian or Saracen, Mongol or pagan, has explored so much of the world as Messer Marco, son of Messer Niccolo Polo, great and noble citizen of the city of Venice."

• 1254: Born in Venice, Italy

• 1260: Nicolo and Maffeo Polo (brothers) left Venice, traveled Black Sea to China

• 1269: Polo brothers arrive back in Venice

• 1271: Polo brothers set off with 17 year old Marco to China

• 1275: Reach China and spend 17 years in Kublai Kahn's realm

• 1292: Leaves China to return home

• 1294: Kublai Kahn dies

• 1295: Arrived back in Venice

• 1298: Battle of Curzola between Venice and Genoa

• 1298: Marco captured by Genoese

• 1298: While imprisoned, wrote Il Milione (English translation known as The Travels of Marco Polo)

• 1299: Released from imprisonment

• 1300: Married Donata Badoer

• 1310 to 1320: Wrote new version of Il Milione

• 1324: Died at about 70 years old and buried in Church of San Lorenzo