Travels of Marco Polo
17 years at Kublai's court open Asia to European eyes
The Venetian Marco Polo travelled to China with his father and uncle and spent some 17 years at the court of Kublai Khan. His book of travels became Europe's chief source of knowledge about Asia for centuries.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 13th century
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Middle East
- 1258 Mongol sack of Baghdad — 13 years earlier
Oceania
- c. 1250 The moai of Easter Island — 21 years earlier
- c. 1280 Polynesians settle New Zealand — 9 years later
Alive at the time
- Kublai Khan (aged 56)
- Marco Polo (aged 17)
- Dante Alighieri (aged 6)
- Rumi (aged 64)
- Rudolf I (aged 53)
- Thomas Aquinas (aged 46)
- Edward I Longshanks (aged 32)
- Osman I (aged 13)
- Philip IV the Fair (aged 3)
- Henry III (aged 64)