As for Marco Polo himself he probably would have ended up as a footnote in history where it not for his cellmate in a Genoan prison, who wrote about Marco Polo's adventures after Marco Polo was captured during a naval battle between Venice and Genoa (Genoa fought with Venice for control of the trade routes to the East). Marco Polo's descriptions of his travels opened up Asia as a new world to Europeans and generated a fascination with the East. After the Mongol empire collapsed not long after Marco Polo's journey travel between the East and West was all but impossible. He was able to travel throughout Asia at a time when the Mongols controlled much of the region.

Marco Polo took advantage of the brief window of opportunity to travel to the East provided by the Mongol conquests. He traveled the whole of China and returned to tell the tale, which became the greatest travelogue.” He became a confidant of Kublai Khan (1214-1294). He reached further than any of his predecessors. His journey through Asia lasted 24 years. He excelled all the other travelers in his determination, his writing, and his influence. According to the Silk Road Foundation: Marco Polo “ is probably the most famous Westerner traveled on the Silk Road. But to Marco Polo's credit his journey was longer (24 years), more extensive (through China and much of Asia) and far richer in experiences (on many missions he was the personnel emissary of Kublai Khan) than the journeys of other European travelers. The friars mentioned earlier arrived in Asia before him. Marco Polo was not the first European to venture to China.

After a three-and-a-half-year overland journey through present day Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan and China he met the great Kublai Khan who took a liking to the young man and used him as an emissary for 20 years. He set off on a journey to the East at the age of seventeen with his uncle and father as part of a diplomatic mission for Pope Gregory X. Marco Polo Marco Polo (1254-1324) is regarded as one of the world's greatest and most influential travelers.

The Travels of Marco Polo by Marco Polo