Tracking Marco Polo

The author recounts his experiences traveling by motorcycle along the route Marco Polo described in his Travels, and clears up some puzzling aspects of the seven-hundred-year-old account

YA Severin, 20, and two companions set out to visit the same countryside that Marco Polo had described 700 years earlier, hoping to verify his observations. This account of their mishaps and sheer fun should fascinate high-school students. On two motorcycles equipped with side cars, they retrace Polo's overland journey from Venice across Turkey, Persia, and Afghanistan, surviving crashes, sandstorms and floods, language problems, jail stays, and exotic foods. With his broken foot in a cast, Tim rides a camel through the Deh Bakri Pass with guides whom he comes to suspect are drug smugglers, and he tastes ``apples of paradise.'' Through this exciting travelogue, readers will come to know the people, the land, and the history as well as the three adventurers, all of whom are now Oxford graduates and professional writers. Lee Kobayashi, St. Francis Day School, Houston
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

On motorcycles, thenOxford undergraduate Severin and two friends set off to retrace Marco Polo's 13th century journey through Asia. Using Polo's journal The Description of the World as their travel guide, the three, calling themselves the Marco Polo Route Project, attempted to prove the accuracy of the Venetian explorer's much-suspect tale, and succeeded in solving such mysteries as Persia's "apples of paradise" and the hidden Sejak Su (hot springs) of Turkey. With an appeal for history buffs as well as adventure seekers, the account describes the escapades and mishaps of amateur explorers as much as it does the reconsideration of a historical event. Published over 20 years ago in Britain, the book was Severin's first, and is not equal to his later titles, including The Brendan Voyage, a chronicle of his excursion by boat from Ireland to America. Photos.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Just as he did in The Brendan Voyage and The Sinbad Voyage, adventurer/scholar Severin sets out to verify past tales and legends through present-day replication. Using Polo's own account as a modern-day guide, the Marco Polo Route Project left Oxford, England, in 1961 with Severin and two companions motorcycling across Europe and Asia. Whether he is in the Valley of the Assassins, at the village of the Magi, or on the Gulf of Hormuz, the author skillfully and entertainingly makes his case for Polo's veracity. In sum, this is an exuberant mix of exotic trekking that invites the reader to have a good historical atlas alongside. Just now available in the United States, this should be a popular addition to most general collections. Jerry Maioli, Western Lib. Network, Olympia, Wash.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.