Ideas: A History of Thought and Invention, from Fire to Freud

by Peter Watson

This is why the Polo brothers, Nicolo and Maffeo, decided to make their way across Asia in 1260. This first trip was a great success because the Mongol ruler of the time, the great Kublai Khan, was as interested in Europe as they were in Asia and sent them back as his ambassadors. When they returned east, in 1271, they took with them Marco, the seventeen-year-old son of Nicolo. This journey turned into one of the great epic voyages of all time. They followed the old Silk Road–fifty-two days of travel–until they reached Kashgar and Yarkand on the edges of China. There they crossed the desert and finally reached Kanbalu (the modern Beijing), where the Khan’s capital had moved to, from Karakorum. Marco Polo was entranced by Kanbalu; he described the city as ‘greater than the mind can comprehend…no fewer than a thousand carriages and pack horses, loaded with raw silk, make their entry daily; and gold tissues and silks of various kinds are manufactured to an immense extent.’