Marco Polo Timeline
The Life of Marco Polo
From a boy in Venice to the palace of the great Kublai Khan in China – and home again after 24 years. The colours show the different parts of his long journey.
Before the big adventure
1254–1271- 1254
Marco is born
He is born in Venice, a rich city on the water in Italy. His father, Niccolò, is a merchant. He buys and sells things like silk and spices.
- 1260
Dad goes far away
Marco’s father and his uncle Maffeo leave Venice on a long trading trip to the east. Marco is only six years old.
- 1266
Meeting the Khan
The two brothers meet Kublai Khan, the ruler of the Mongols and of China. He wants to know all about Europe. He asks them to come back with holy oil from Jerusalem and 100 wise men.
- 1269
Hello, Dad!
Niccolò comes home to Venice. Marco is now 15, and his mother has died. It is the first time Marco really gets to know his father.
The journey to China
1271–1275- 1271
Off we go!
Marco is 17 years old. He leaves Venice with his father and his uncle. First they go to Jerusalem to get the holy oil for the Khan.
- 1272
No ships today
In Hormuz in Persia (today Iran) they want to sail to China. But the ships are sewn together with rope and have no nails. They look too weak, so the Polos walk and ride instead.
- 1273
Sick in the mountains
Marco gets very ill in the mountains of Afghanistan. He stays there for about one year in the fresh mountain air until he is well again.
- 1273–1274
The roof of the world
They climb over the high and cold Pamir mountains. Then they cross the Gobi Desert on camels. It takes a month. At night Marco hears strange sounds and thinks they are spirits.
- 1275about 3½ years after leaving Venice
At the palace of the Khan
The Polos arrive at Shangdu, the Khan’s summer palace in China. Kublai Khan is happy to see them again, and he likes young Marco very much.
Working for Kublai Khan
1275–1292- 1275–1292
A job for the emperor
Marco learns new languages. The Khan sends him on long trips around his huge empire. When Marco comes back, he tells the Khan everything he has seen.
- 1280s
Amazing China
Marco sees many things that nobody in Europe knows about: money made of paper, “black stones” that burn (coal), and giant cities with thousands of bridges.
- around 1290
Time to go home?
The Polos have been in China for many years. The Khan is getting old, and they want to go home. But the Khan does not want them to leave.
Many people say that Marco Polo brought spaghetti from China to Italy. That is a myth! People in Italy ate pasta before Marco came home.
The journey home
1292–1295- 1292
A princess on board
At last the Khan lets them go. They must take a young princess to Persia, where she will marry a king. 14 ships and about 600 people sail from China.
- 1292–1293
Waiting for the wind
The ships stop on the island of Sumatra (today Indonesia) for five months. They wait for the right wind. Then they sail past India.
- 1293
A hard trip
They reach Persia, but many people on the ships have died on the way. And the king is dead too! So the princess marries his son instead.
- 129524 years after leaving Venice
Home again
The Polos come back to Venice. Their family does not know who they are! A famous story says they cut open their old coats, and lots of jewels fell out.
Prison and the book
1298–1299- 1298
Prisoner!
Venice is at war with the city of Genoa. Marco is captured in a battle at sea and put in prison in Genoa.
- 1298–1299
A famous book
In prison Marco meets a writer called Rustichello. Marco tells about his travels, and Rustichello writes it all down. The book becomes The Travels of Marco Polo.
- 1299
Free again
Marco goes home to Venice. He gets married and has three daughters.
The end
1324- 8 January 1324
Marco Polo dies
He dies in Venice, about 69 years old. Many people think his stories are lies. A story says that his last words were: “I did not tell half of what I saw.”
About 200 years later, Christopher Columbus read Marco Polo’s book and wrote notes in it. He wanted to find the rich lands of Asia that Marco wrote about – by sailing west! See the Columbus Timeline.
Timeline words
- merchant
- a person who buys and sells things
- journey
- a long trip from one place to another
- ruler
- the person who decides over a country
- empire
- many countries ruled by one person
- desert
- a very dry place with sand and almost no rain
- prisoner
- a person who is locked up and cannot leave
- myth
- a story many people believe, but it is not true