Born 1254,
Venice, Italy
Died 1324,
Venice, Italy

In the Book of Ser Marco Polo, Marco Polo described in detail each region he passed through during his 24-year journey in Asia; he also gave accounts based on hearsay of places he did not visit. European readers of his day regarded Polo’s stories as fictional because they described regions and cultures that were completely foreign to Europeans. Scholars have accepted his material as accurate, however, and until the nineteenth century Polo’s book was virtually the only source of information about Asia for Westerners.

In 1253 Niccolò and Maffeo Polo, two brothers from Venice, Italy, went on a trading expedition to Constantinople, which is now the city of Istanbul, in Turkey. When they were ready to return to Venice their route was blocked by a war, so they made a detour through K’ai-feng in...