# data[].attributes.body
Marco Polo (1254-1324) is regarded as one of the world's greatest and most influential travelers.

# data[].attributes.body
Marco Polo was born in 1254. His family were Ventians, but it is unclear if he was actually born in Venice or if the birth took place on the island of Curzola off the Dalmatian coast, where his father and uncle had established a trading post.

# data[].attributes.body
Even before Marco was born, the brothers had travelled extensively, setting up trading posts in Constantinople, Sudak, Crimea, and the western part of the Mongolian Empire. They even visited China.

# data[].attributes.body
The brothers Niccilo and Maffeo Polo left Venice and embarked on their first long sejour abroad when Marco was just a child.

# data[].attributes.body
Marco Polo’s mother died when he was just a child, after which he was taken care of by his aunt and uncle.

# data[].attributes.body
After staying in the Venetian qaurter of Constantinople for several years, the brothers realized that the political situation had grown precarious and decided to leave. They arrived in the Crimean port Sudak in 1260, and then continued to Surai, located on the Volga river, where they engaged in trading for a year.

# data[].attributes.body
When civil war broke out between two powerful cousins in the region, the violence made it too risky for the Polo brother to return by the same route as they had come, and they decided to instead go east to get away from the war.

# data[].attributes.body
Eventually, a Mongol ambassador arrived to Bukhara, asking the brothers to go to the Hulagu Khan who was interested in meeting the exotic foreigners.

# data[].attributes.body
After a year in China, the Polo brothers were sent back to Europe by Kublai Khan who wanted them to deliver a letter from him to Pope Clement IV. The Polo brothers returned to Venice in April 1269 and the now teenaged Marco could finally be reunited with his father.

# data[].attributes.body
In 1271, the Polo brothers embarked on a new journey, and this time the took Marco with them. They had finally been able to deliver the letter from Kublai Khan to the pope, since Teobaldo Visconti had been elected at the conclusion of the papal election that had been running from 1268 to 1271 – the longest papal election in the history of the Latin Church.

# data[].attributes.body
With them on their new journey east, the Polo family brought letters and gifts from the pope that they were to give to Kublai Khan, and they were also accompanied by two friars. The friars left them fairly soon, however, because they reached a war zone and the friars got too scared to continue.

# data[].attributes.body
The Polo family pushed on without them, traveling through Armenia, Persia, and Afghanistan, and following a route that went over the Pamir Mountains of Central Asia to get to China.

# data[].attributes.body
The Polos reached Kublai Khan’s summer residence Shant-tu in May 1275. Eventually, when the Polo’s had been with the Khan for 17 years, they got his permission to leave and head back to Europe.