Niccolò and Maffeo Polo

Niccolò and Maffeo Polo were Venetian merchants that have done business along the Silk Road. They had years of experience trading in Levant and have reached as far as China in their travels. In 1269 they returned in Europe carrying a message from Kublai Khan to the pope in Rome, together with a request that they bring back some oil from the lamp that was burning in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem.

In 1271 they headed back to China, and this time Niccolò's son, Marco, who was 17 years old at the time, went with them. They had a paiza with them, a small tablet in gold, which gave them free passage, lodgings and horses throughout Mongol lands. Their journey took them to Armenia and along the caravan trails of Central Asia, until they eventually reached Kublai Khan's capital at Shangdu in 1275.