The Silk Road

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The Silk Road

In the West stood a continent built

on lofty ideals and grand ambition.

In the East, towered an empire of

unimaginable size and splendor.

For thousands of years

these two civilizations had thrived

in seeming isolation.

Two men stepped into the void.

Marco Polo was lured by the promise

of unprecedented wealth.

Sven Hedin by a thirst for adventure

and the trappings of world fame.

Confronted by the most

daunting terrain on earth,

they went in search of the impossible

a lasting connection

between East and West

Along the old Silk Road.

Italy, 1296 A.D.

A Venetian trader languishes in jail

and wonders if he will ever get out.

His name is Marco Polo

and he's now a prisoner of war

the victim of an ongoing conflict

between Genoa and his native Venice.

Polo is afraid he will die here

in jail

and he's come up with

an amazing strategy for survival.

A book about his life and his travels.

An incredible story that might allow

his name to live on forever.

"There has been no man,

Christian or pagan,

Mongol or Indian,

or of any race whatsoever,

who has known or explored

so much of the world

and its great wonders as have I,

Marco Polo."

He writes about his incredible trek

across lethal mountains and deserts...

to Cathay, modern day China: a magical

country at the end of the earth.

A land so wealthy that its ruler could

entertain 40,000 guests at a time.

A civilization so advanced they could

predict the movement of the heavens.

A culture so generous that husbands

even shared their wives with strangers.

Marco Polo's book was a success.

His journey to Cathay

has become one of the most famous

adventure stories ever written.

But it is full of such incredible

tales of discovery

and intrigue that it leaves everyone

wondering the same thing:

Could it possibly be true?

Or is Polo's adventure

along the old Silk Road

actually a masterpiece

of the imagination?

In the first century B.C.,

imperial Rome dominated the west,

Han China the east.

A world apart, these two superpowers

knew little of each other's existence.

The seductive beauty of

one substance drew them closer.

It all began in Mesopotamia. 53 B.C.

Roman legions were on the brink of

a historic victory

against the Parthian army.

Unexpectedly,

the Parthians unfurled huge banners

of a magical translucent material.

The Roman army had never seen anything

like it, and fled in confusion

leaving 20,000 dead

on the battlefield.

Fear turned to fascination

and silk quickly became

the rage in ancient Rome.

The Chinese fabric was soon

worth its weight in gold.

Traders saw their chance.

Caravans braved the 5000 miles

separating China and Rome.

Cities sprung up in the deserts

and plains to service the traders.

Along with the goods flowed ideas

that revolutionized

the cultures along the way.

Buddhism and Islam spread eastwards.

Printing and papermaking went West.

The Silk Road pioneering connection

between East and West was established.

People have a mental vision

that the Silk Road is like I95,

a huge long highway

and that one person took some silk

from one end all the way to the other.

And in fact

that almost never happened.

Merchants would take the goods

from one oasis to another

and then another group of merchants

would take them on.

So I think the Silk Road

is not the road.

I think the most important things are

those communities along the Silk Road.

For nearly a thousand years

these communities thrived.

In the 10th century,

China collapsed in civil war,

and it was no longer safe

to travel in the East.

In the chaos,

the Silk Road fell silent.

The desert cities that depended on

its traffic were abandoned.

As shifting sands buried their memory,

the link between

East and West was broken.

a young boy named Marco Polo

was born in Venice, Italy.

Marco grew up a forgotten orphan

on the docks and canals of the city.

Marco Polo did not have a conventional

and happy childhood.

His father left before he was born

and his mother died

when he was relatively young.

But actually that

relatively unhappy childhood

provided him with certain skills

that would turn out to be

very important for him on his travels.

He learned to get along with

a wide variety of peoples.

One day Marco's world was turned

upside down.

A stranger walked into his life.

It was his father.

It was the first time

the two had ever met.

And the boy listened in awe as his

father explained his 14 year absence.

He said he had made

an incredible overland journey

to a magical land in the East.

He talked about a foreign people

the Mongols

and their massive empire,

the biggest the world had ever seen.

And explained how he had just

risked his life

to personally visit its capital

in Cathay, modern day China.

Young Marco was stunned.

China, in the 13th Century

to a Venetian,

is probably the most foreign place

that there is,

maybe like the South Pole

is to us today.

That you can go

but it's a huge journey.

Not many people go.

There are incredible

logistical difficulties.

Marco's father also claimed

to have risen to favor with

Kublai Khan, the new Mongol king.

He insisted he was sitting

on a gold mine.

For with the Khan's favor,

he would have prime access to

all the treasures of the East.

If the Polos could make it

to China and back again,

they'd be able to reestablish

overland trade links

between two very

wealthy civilizations.

The sudden reappearance of his father

must have stimulated him

to think about perhaps joining him

on a travel of his own.

Going to China for Marco Polo

would be the most extraordinary

adventure of his entire life.

They probably don't suspect they're

going to get all the way to China.

But I think there's enough talk

at the time about modern,

what's now Turkey or what's now Iran

that he would have been very excited.

Marco imagined his journey

to the east

the wealth of Cathay,

the dangers ahead.

Some would say that an imaginary

journey is all that he ever took.

According to his story, Marco Polo

set off for China in 1271 A.D.

a merchant in search of

the world's wealthiest market.

His 5000 mile overland journey took

him through Tabriz, Baghdad, Hormuz

the great bazaars of the Middle East

where the trading energy of

the old Silk Road is still alive.

Marco was encouraged by what he saw.

"Traveling merchants

can make very good money.

For there is much gold and silk

cloth of great value."

Camping out in the open at night,

Marco was careful to protect his profits.

Anybody who traveled on the Silk Roads

had to be really quite

brave and courageous.

Many people just didn't make it,

in part because of banditry

all along the route.

One night in Persia,

Polo claims to have been robbed.

Many of his caravan were killed.

Marco was lucky to get away

with his life.

It's not as simple as taking a plane

in Venice and hopping over to Beijing.

This was a long, long

and demanding journey.

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