Caravan Tales

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Marco Polo traveled much of the ancient world and we all know this, we know his name and we have a fairly good idea of what he accomplished.  But Marco Polo was not the first to travel to the Far East, nor were his travels the most fantastical.  This work places our most famous Venetian within the milieu of world travelers from ancient and medieval times and from the all lands of the old world.  There were Buddhists and Jews and Muslims and even a Chinese Christian who ventured to the holy lands and as far west as France during the years that Polo spent in China.  How did these figures travel, what routes did they take, what dangers did they face and most importantly, why did they leave the comforts of home for travails and discomforts of the open road?  I look into all these matters and briefly discuss the modern traveler and their conception of their journeys as travel.