Marco Polo, a 13th-century merchant, explorer, adventurer and traveler, was the first and perhaps most famous European to make a long journey through Asia and build a bridge between East and West. His wanderings took him to the borders of the world then known to Europe and beyond along the dangerous Silk Road to the court of Kublai Khan, where he won the trust of the powerful ruler of the Mongol Empire. Returning, the Venetian introduced his compatriots to the cultural riches of the East, thereby laying the foundation for a centuries-long fascination with Asia. A master storyteller, Lawrence Bergrin has created the most authoritative account of Marco Polo's fascinating travels to date, masterfully combining the genres of scientific research, biography and travel diary. An incredible odyssey, incorporating all the fantastic circumstances of the life of the scion of a wealthy merchant family - from his youth in Venice and travel to Asia to his return to Europe and the writing of a book, the history of the distribution and interpretation of which is no less dramatic than the path of its author - appears in carefully selected and bright details. Drawing on solid primary sources and his own travels along the Polo route in China and Mongolia, Bergrin describes the life of a man who expanded the limits of knowledge and imagination of his contemporaries, and analyzes the legends about him, separating truth from fiction, and history from myth. The book went through many reprints and was translated into 14 languages. “Polo eventually acquired the status of an intermediary in the exchange of cultural values, becoming one of those rare individuals whose extensive experience allows him to embody and convey the spirit of the era to subsequent generations. His culture was that of a traveler and trader and included many subcultures: Mongolian, Chinese, Indian and Asian cultures. His gaze extended from Armenia to Zanzibar. His perceptions of these cultures, especially the Chinese, remained the main source of information about them for Europeans until the 19th century. The world that Marco Polo explored is long gone, but some of its features are strikingly modern.” (Lawrence Bergrin) This book is published in Russian in two series entitled “Marco Polo: From Venice to Xanadu” (series “Historical Interest”) and “The History of Famous Travels: Marco Polo” (series “Persona”). In PDF format A4 retains the publishing design.