15 September: Marco Polo

Marco Polo was a Venetian trader and explorer known for exploring Asia, and writing a book about his journey called The Travels of Marco Polo. He was born in 1254.

1. I did find sources which said he was born on 15 September, others say his date of birth is unknown. It is generally believed he was born in Venice, Italy, although this is disputed by some historians who believe he was born in Constantinople or Croatia. His father Niccolo was a wealthy trader who did business with the Near East.
2. Marco didn't even meet his father until he was 15 years old, because he was always away at sea. Marco's mother died while Niccolo was away on this voyage and Marco was brought up by an aunt and uncle. He had a good education in subjects which would be useful in the family business - such as handling cargo ships and foreign currency.
3. He set out on his epic journey when he was just 17, with his father and uncle, whose aim was to reach the court of Kublai Khan. The trip took 24 years. His father and uncle, incedentally, had done much of the journey before, so although Marco was the first European to write about Asia, he wasn't the first to go there.
4. When he got back to Venice, there was a war on, against the Republic of Genoa. Marco armed a ship and fought for Venice. He was captured and became a prisoner of war for a time. In prison with him was an Italian romance writer called Rustichello da Pisa. Marco dictated the story of his voyage to Asia to Rustichello, thus creating the manuscript of his famous book.
5. It was Marco Polo who introduced the idea of paper money to Europe. The Chinese already had banknotes and Marco was extremely impressed by this system and how forgery was prevented. To him, it was tantamount to changing mulberry trees into money.
6. It's often said Marco Polo was responsible for introducing pasta and Ice cream to Italy. This probably isn't true, but he did describe coal and eyeglasses, Chinese inventions which later took off in Europe. He also brought back rare spices and described a drink that Mongols made by adding water to dried milk while riding. The motion of the horse churned up the mixture into a thick syrup.
7. He described animals no-one in Europe had ever seen before, including musk deer, chow chow dogs, yaks and Rhinoceroses. He was particularly fond of the yak and brought sample of yak hair back with him. He mistook the rhino for a unicorn, however, and his description of those animals was largely trying to correct the popular notion that Unicorns were beautiful horse-like creatures. Unicorns are ugly and dangerous, he said, with feet like an elephant, a head like a wild boar and hair like a buffalo. A breed of sheep that he described was eventually named after him - Ovis ammon polii.
8. Some of the stories in his book almost certainly fall into the category of tall tales, with talk of sorcerors and astrologers who could control the weather and levitate flagons of wine. Others might be simply a 13th century take on natural phenomena. He wrote about evil spirits in the desert which lured people away from their path with illusions and voices, but it may well have been how people in those times viewed the Gobi Desert's "singing sands".
9. He was among the first to have a passport. According to his story, he became an adviser to Kublai Khan for a while. The emperor was reluctant to let him go when he decided to return to Venice, but eventually agreed on condition that Polo took Khan's great nephew with him for a grand tour. Khan gave Polo an inscribed gold tablet which declared he was under the Emperor's protection during his voyage.
10. A copy of The Travels of Marco Polo later found its way around the world on another epic voyage - that of Christopher Columbus. Columbus was inspired by Polo, and hoped, as part of his own expedition, to make contact with Kublai Khan's successor - but ended up discovering America instead.

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Themes: 

Superheroes; Coming of age; Leadership; Kidnap and rescue; Aliens; Friendship and rivalry; Terrorism; Secrets.

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