Age of Exploration · event 1 of 7

1271

Marco Polo leaves Venice. The seventeen-year-old departs with his father and uncle for the court of Kublai Khan, returning after twenty-four years. His account, dictated in a Genoese prison, is the most influential travel book in European history and was widely disbelieved.

The Age of Exploration era

  1. 1271
  2. 1325
  3. 1405
  4. 1492
  5. 1497
  6. 1519
  7. 1768

See the full timeline or read the short history of travel.