Why is Marco Polo more popular than Ibn Battutah Essay

Why is Marco Polo more popular than Ibn Battutah - Essay Example Marco Polo's first journey was a trip to Cathay (China) at the age of seventeen with his father. While traveling towards China they passed through Armenia, Persia, and Afghanistan, over the Pamirs, and all along the Silk Road to China. During their journey they first made a wide swing to the North arriving to the southern Caucasus and the kingdom of Georgia. Then they journeyed along the regions parallel to the western shores of the Caspian Sea, reaching Tabriz and made their way south to Hormuz on the Persian Gulf. From Homurz to Kerman, passing Herat, Balkh, they arrived Badakhshan, where Marco Polo recovered from an illness and stayed there for a year. On the move again, they found themselves on "the highest place in the world, the Pamirs", with its name appeared in the history for the first time. Ibn Battutah on his first journey travelled through Algiers, Tunis, Egypt, Palestine and Syria to Makkah. After visiting Iraq, Shiraz and Mesopotamia he once more returned to perform the Hajj at Makkah and remained there for three years. Ibn Battutah visited China sixty years after Marco Polo and travelled 75,000 miles, much more than Marco Polo and less remembered than Marco Polo. Marco Polo in his travels had visited the sprawling cities and markets that even Christopher Columbus had not seen, which later revealed as the "parts of Asia". Ibn Battutah also informed about such undiscovered lands and added additional knowledge to the works of Marco Polo. Marco Polo arrived the Taklamakan desert (or Taim Basin), after passing through the views of Yarkand, Khotan, Cherchen, and Lop-Nor. It was Marco's ability as a traveler and writer that enabled him to observe and write even the most minute and unnoticeable details after just going through the glimpses. On the other hand one cannot ignore the travel efforts made by Ibn Battutah even at those circumstances at which his ships were wretched. Ibn Battutah after leading three years at Makkah once again packed up and after a visit to Jeddah he went to Yemen by sea, visited Aden and set sail for Mombasa, East Africa. After going up to Kulwa and touching Hormuz, Siraf, Bahrain and Yamama he came back to Oman. He revisited Cairo, Palestine and Syria, thereafter arriving at Aleya (Asia Minor) by sea and travelled across Anatolia and Sinope. He crossed the Black Sea and after long itinerant he reached Constantinople through Southern Ukraine. (A.S Chughtai, Ibn Battutah-The great traveller) He w as appointed as chief judge in Delhi, and later, the Sultan as his Ambassador sent him to the Mongol Emperor of China. This trip took him to the Maldives, Bengal, Assam, Sumatra, and finally to the Chinese city of Zaytun and possibly Beijing. He returned to Morocco in 1349. Marco was such a dare hearted traveler that he did not lack behind in exploration of the Gobi Desert,