Marco Polo was the most famous traveller of his time. His voyages began
in 1271 with a visit to China, after which he served the Kubilai Khan on
numerous diplomatic missions. On his return to the West, he was made a
prisoner of war and met Rustichello of Pisa, with whom he collaborated
on this book. The accounts of his travels provide a fascinating glimpse
of the different societies he encountered: their religions, customs,
ceremonies and way of life; on the spices and silks of the East; on
precious gems, exotic vegetation and wild beasts. He tells the story of
the holy shoemaker, the wicked caliph and the three kings, among a great
many others, evoking a remote and long-vanished world with colour and
immediacy. He found himself traversing the most exotic lands-from the
dazzling Mongol empire to Tibet and Burma. This fascinating chronicle
still serves as the most vivid depiction of the mysterious East in the
Middle Ages.