A traditional portrait of Marco Polo. Wikimedia Commons.
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Marco Polo was born in Venice in 1254. As a teenager, he travelled east with his father and uncle on a long journey through Asia. According to the famous account associated with him, the Polos reached the court of Kublai Khan, ruler of the Mongol Empire and China’s Yuan dynasty. Marco later returned to Venice. While imprisoned after a war, he helped produce a book describing distant places, wealth, customs and trade. Historians debate some details, but the book strongly influenced European ideas about Asia.
