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Kublai Khan, fifth Khagan of the Mongol Empire and the would-be founder of China’s Yuan dynasty, was happy to see the foreigners and greeted them with great hospitality.

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Consequently, the brothers started travelling even further to the east, via Samarkand and then through the dangerous Gobi desert.

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Eventually, a Mongol ambassador arrived to Bukhara, asking the brothers to go to the Hulagu Khan who was interested in meeting the exotic foreigners.

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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.

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Because they reached a war zone and the friars got too scared to continue.

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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.

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In 1271, the Polo brothers embarked on a new journey, and this time the took Marco with them.

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Marco Polo spent at least part of his childhood in Venice, which was at the time a city state heavily engaged in international commerce.

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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.

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Marco Polo was born in 1254