The Travels of Marco Polo
is unquestionably one of the world's greatest travel books and the memoir of the West's most famous traveler. Composed in 1298, the book describes Marco Polo's travels across the entire continent of Asia and provides the only comprehensive travelogue of a European traveler in the East in the Middle Ages.
In a magisterial geographical sweep,
traces Polo's epic journey to the farthest reaches of Asia. Polo guides his readers through a realm of pigmies, exotic plants and beasts, fine silks, spices, legends, ornate palaces, and cannibalism. His exuberant and sometimes hyperbolic style had untold impact on the European imagination.