MARCO POLO's JOURNEY

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HIS JOURNEY...........
Marco Polo is one of the most famous Westerner travellers to have travelled along the Silk Road and reach China.He was an advisor to Kublai Khan [ founder of Yuan Dynasty in China ].
He travelled the whole of China and later returned to Italy to tell the tale of his journey.He has travelled more than
24,000 miles,approximately 38624.26 kilometers, through the bleak and rugged mountains of the Middle East and Central Asia, to China and the court of Kublai Khan.

[13th Century Venice]

Marco Polo was born to Niccolo Polo,a leading merchant. In 1260, Niccolo and Maffeo Polo, Marco's father and uncle, traveled to Khanbalik[Cambaluc],city of Khan, which Kublai Khan had made the capital of his Empire. After nine years, the men returned to Venice having made a promise to Kublai Khan that they'd returned to China and bring with them some friars
[ men belonging to one of several Roman Catholic religious groups whose members often worked as teachers and showed their love of God by staying poor ]
in order to aid in the introduction of Christianity. The seventeen-year old,Marco Polo joined his father and uncle for this second journey, which began in 1271. The party was well received by Kublai Khan in 1275, although the friars he had requested for were not in China.

Since Marco Polo was more young man with a gift for languages, Kublai Khan appointed him to civil service in 1277. Marco Polo rose quickly through the ranks and was eventually sent by the Emperor on a few confidential missions. Marco Polo eventually became pretect of Yang Chow, a large city on the Grand Canal. During his fifteen years of service he gained much information about India,Japan and also learned of China.When Marco Polo applied for leave around the year 1290 but Kublai Khan refused because he could not stand to lose the excellent service of Marco Polo. Marco Polo was finally granted leave in 1292, but only because he was thought to be the best man to escort the Lady Kokachin to Persia, where she would marry Kublai Khan's grand nephew. Marco Polo was allowed to leave on the condition that he would return to Kublai Khan's service. However,Kublai Khan's death released Marco Polo from this obligation.

Marco Polo continued his journey and arrived in Venice in 1295.During this time, Venice was at war with the Republic of Genoa, and the ship which Marco Polo was traveling on,was captured by the Genoese. Marco Polo was held prisoner in Genoa from 1296 to 1299, and it was during these years that the book
"Travels of Marco Polo" was produced.Marco Polo dictated to a fellow prisoner by the name of Rusticello of Pisa. After his release in 1299, Marco Polo lived in Venice where he became the joke of the town as people did not believe his travel stories. Marco Polo died in the year 1324 and was buried in the Church of San Lorenzo.

-MAP OF JOURNEY-

-PLACES OF INTEREST-

-SILK ROAD-

An interconnected series of ancient trade routes through various regions of the Asian continent mainly connecting Xi'an [China] ,with Asia Minor [Anatolia] and the Mediterranean.It is over 5,000 Miles [8,000 km].

Significant factor in the development of the Civilisations of China,Egypt,Mesopotamia,Persia,Indian subcontinent [large section of the Asian continent consisting of the countries on the Indian tectonic plate] and Rome.

There are evidence for ancient transport and trade routes

The ancient people of the Sahara imported domesticated animals from Asia.

Foreign artifacts dating to the 5th millennium BC in the Badarian culture of Egypt indicated contact with distant Syria.

In predynastic Egypt,by the 4th millennium BC shipping was well established, and the donkey and possibly the dromedary had been domesticated. Domestication of the Bactrian camel and use of the horse for transport then followed.

Also by the beginning of the 4th millennium BC,ancient Egyptians in Maadi were importing pottery as well as construction ideas from Canaan.

By the second half of the 4th millennium BC, the gemstone,lapis lazuli,was being traded from its only known source in the ancient world.By the 3rd millennium BC,the gemstone trade was extended to Harappa and Mohenjo-daro in the Indus Valley Civilization of [modern day Pakistan and northwestern India]. The Indus Valley was also known as Meluhha, the earliest maritime trading partner of the Sumerians and Akkadians in Mesopotamia.

Routes along the Persian Royal Road, constructed in 5th century BC by Darius I of Persia, may have been in use as early as 3500 BC. Charcoal samples found in the tombs of Nekhen, which were dated to the Naqada I and II periods, have been identified as cedar from Lebanon.

In 1994 excavators discovered an incised ceramic shard with the serekh sign of Narmer, dating to circa 3000 BC. Mineralogical studies reveal the shard to be a fragment of a wine jar exported from the Nile valley to Israel.

The ancient harbor constructed in Lothal,may be the oldest sea-faring harbor known.

Indicates trading routes used around the 1st century CE centred on the Silk Road.

Red Sea - Myos Hormoz , Berenica , Ptolemais Theron , Adulis, Muza, Ocalis, Aualites, Malao.

Arabia - [South] Saue, Sana, Saphar, Eudaemon Arabia, Cane, Mosyllon, Moscha

Persian Gulf - Asabon, Charax, Gerra, Ommana, Apologos

Persia - Persepolis, Alexandria Areion, Kandahar

Africa - [East Africa/Kush/Axum] Coloe, Axum, Akhmim, Panopolis, Aromaton Emporion, Opone, Sarapion, Dongola,[Mediterranean] Cyrene, Leptis Magna, Carthage, Caesarea, [Beyond map] [East Africa] Juba, Maji, Sennar, [Trans-Saharan] Sijilmassa, Tamanrasset, Murzuk, Tingis.

Europe - Gades [Cadiz] , Augusta Treverorum [Trier] , Aquileia, Ostia, Athens

India - [Arabian Sea] Horaia, Barbaricum,Barake,Astakapra, Suppara, Kalliena, Semylla, Mandagora, Palaepatmae, Melizeigara, Erannoboas, Byzantion, Naura, Tymdis, [Central] Paethana, Tagara, [South] Muziris, Nelcynda, Bacare, Balita, Colchi, Palaesimundu, [East] Argaru, Poduca, Sopatma

Silk Road - Ecbatana, Yarkand, Jiaohei, Kitai, Kaifeng. [Note - both summer and winter routes around the Taklamakan Desert are shown]

China - Chengdu, Kunming, Cattgara

South East Asia - Trang, Thato

-ORIGIN OF GOODS-

China - silk, clothing, lacquerware, spices

Indo-China - spices, ivory, timber, pearls

Northern India - precious stones, ivory, tortoise shell, incense, spices, cloth, timber

Southern India - ivory, tortoiseshell, spices, precious stones, cloth, timber

Arabia - spices, slaves, precious stones

East Africa - gold, ivory, exotic animals, slaves, incense

Trans-Sahara - ivory, gold, slaves

North Africa - grains

Southern Europe - olive oil, wine, glassware, coinage

Western Europe - silver, tin

Northern Europe - slaves, amber

Asia Minor - silver, precious stones, timber, wine

-TAKLAMAKAN DESERT-

The Taklamakan [also Taklimakan] is a desert of Central Asia, in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China.

largest sand-only desert in the WORLD

Taklamakan means 'if you go in, you won't come out'

others say it means 'desert of death' or 'place of no return'

covers over an area of 270,000 km² of the Tarim Basin

78° to 88° E longitude and 37° to 40° N latitude

crossed at its northern and at its southern edge by two branches of the Silk Road

key oasis towns are Kashgar, Yarkand, and Khotan [in the South-West] , Kuqa and Turfan [in the North], and Loulan and Dunhuang [in the East]

The White Jade River flows into the Taklamakan, so does the Yarkant He [originating in the Kunlun mountains] and the Torkan He [originating from Tien Shan range]

archeological treasures found in its sand buried ruins point to Tocharian,[early Hellenistic, and Indian/Buddhistic influences]. Its treasures and dangers have been vividly described by Aurel Stein, Sven Hedin, Albert von Le Coq, and Paul Pelliot. More recently, Antonio Graceffo crossed the desert and wrote about his experiences.

mummies,some 400o years old,have been found in this region[wide range of people who have pass through]

Many of the mummies appear European and may have been members of the Tocharians, who spoke Tocharian [an Indo-European language]

Later, the Taklamakan Desert was inhabited by Turkic people. Starting with the Tang Dynasty, the Chinese periodically extended their control to the oasis cities of the Taklamakan in order to control the important Silk route trade across Central Asia. Periods of Chinese rule were interspersed with rule by Turkic and Mongol and Tibetan people.

The present population consists largely of Turkic Uyghur and Kazakh people in the countryside, while the population of the larger cities is the Han Chinese.

-CULTURES-

-CHINA-

CHINESE FOLK ART

papercutting [chinese paper cutting-Eastern Han Dynasty]
papercutting [chinese paper folding-Eastern Han Dynasty]
puppetry [chinese shadow theatre-Han Dynasty]

LYRICAL

poetry [chinese poetry-spring and autmn period]

VISUAL ARTS

pottery [chinese ceramic-palaeolithic era]
chinese painting [Ming Dynasty Painting-Ming Dynasty]
chinese painting [Tang Dynasty Painting-Tang Dynasty]
chinese painting [ink and wash painting-Tang Dynasty]
chinese painting [Shan Shui painting-Song Dynasty]
East Asian calligraphy [oracle bone script-Shang Dynasty]
East Asian calligraphy [cursive script-Han Dynasty]

CHINESE MUSIC

traditional [instrumental music-Zhou dynasty]
traditional [Yayue-Western Zhou Dynasty]

PERFORMANCE ARTS

variety arts [chinese variety arts-Han Dynasty]

-LINKS-

MARCO POLO's JOURNEY

-about marco-

-TRAVELLERS TIPS-

-PLACES OF INTEREST-

-SUGGESTED READING MATERIALS-

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS