Marco leaves Venice
Soon after Niccolo and Maffeo returned to Venice in 1269, they planned their return to China. The Polos did not just need the food, clothes, and money for a long journey. They also needed the oil from Jerusalem and a hundred priests to take to Kublai Khan!
This time, the brothers took young Marco with them. As the son of an important merchant, he needed to learn to travel and trade. In 1271 they left Venice and sailed east across the Mediterranean Sea to the city of Acre.
In Acre they immediately looked for Theobald of Piacenza. He was an important man who worked for the Pope, and Niccolo and Maffeo knew him already. Theobaldo said that the Polos could go and get the special oil from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.
But there was one big problem. The Polos wanted to take a hundred priests to China, and only the Pope could agree to this. But at this time there was no Pope-people were waiting for a new one.
So the three travelers decided to get the special oil first. But when they returned to Acre there was still no news about the Pope. They became tired of priests and began their long journey.
But they soon got a message from Theobaldo-They must return to Acre at once. And there they learned some surprising news. Theobaldo of Piacenza himself was the new Pope- Pope Gregory the Tenth. He sent the Polos on their journey with letters for Kublai Khan and two priests-but not a hundred!
The travelers needed to go to the town of Hormuz, where they could find a ship to China. But their long journey began badly. the two priests became frightened by stores about fighting on other parts of the road, and they turned back to Acre. What could the Polos do new? They did not want to go home, of course, so they continued without the priests.
the men on their long journey to hormuz through countries that we now know as turkey, armenia, georgia, iraq, and iran. marco later wrote about his travels here in the description of the world
as a merchant he often described the interesting goods in markets along the route. In Turkomania, now armenia, he was excited to find: 'the best and handsomest carpets in the world.' he also talked of the fine silk here in many bright and beautiful colours.
Further on the journey , Marco heard stories about black oil. The oil came out of a hole in the ground and people burnt it in small lights or put it on their skin when they were ill. We now think that Marco was describing the oil fields of Baku in Azerbaijan. Oil still comes from the Baku area today.
The polos moved down to the town of mosul and then to baghdad. In the huge markets here, marco found expensive carpets, valuable silk ,and find cloth with wonderful picture of birds and animal on it.
Next, the travellers journeyed across Persia-modern-day Iran,to the city of kerman. Then they moved south through the area of the karaunas . a dangerous group of thieves and murderers, In this area the polos travelled with a caravan to protect themselves.
But one day there was terrible sand storm and the karaunas came out from behind rocks and fought the travellers. luckily the polos escaped, but the karaunas took many other people from the caravan and sold them.
In the end. The men arrived in hormuz and looked at the arab boats there called dhows. For the next part of the journey they hoped to find ships made from wood and nails like the ones in vanice. but where were the nails in the dhows? These boats were only made from wood and rope and they did not look very strong.
What could the travellers do now? The answer was a difficult one. They needed to turn around and make the long journey to china by land on the silk road.