Person

Marco Polo

Venetian traveller of the 13th and 14th centuries (1254–1324) who set out from Venice in search of China, Annam, Tonkin, Sumatra, India and Persia.

Marco Polo

Silk Road

The Silk Road was not a single road but a vast network of overland and maritime trade routes that linked China with Central Asia, India, Persia, Arabia, and the Mediterranean world. Taking shape around the 2nd century BCE after the Han dynasty's missions to Central Asia and remaining in use into the 16th century, the network carried silk, paper, spices, and horses, and with them Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, and technologies such as papermaking. Its hubs — Chang'an, Samarkand, Merv, Dunhuang, Baghdad, and Antioch — became crossroads of civilizations, and its legacy is still invoked today, from the World Heritage corridors of UNESCO to China's Belt and Road Initiative.

25/25 claims verified 13 min read· 2026-09-17

Venice

Venice is the lagoon city of the northern Adriatic: 118 islands joined by canals and bridges inside a crescent-shaped lagoon, once the capital of a maritime republic that dominated the eastern Mediterranean, and today a World Heritage site fighting to stay habitable. This fact file gathers the evidence behind the story: UNESCO’s 1987 inscription and the advisory missions that twice recommended placing the site on the Danger List; the tide records — 194 cm on 4 November 1966 and 187 cm on 12 November 2019; the MOSE system of 78 mobile gates, operational since October 2020 and now raised about 20 times a year; the shifting statistics of residents, visitors and cruise ships; and the scientific record of a lagoon whose salt marshes have shrunk by half since 1927.

24/24 claims verified 18 min read· 2026-09-18

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Venice · departed_from Silk Roads · traveled Silk Roads · traveled Silk Roads · traveled Silk Roads · traveled Silk Roads · traveled