Marco Polo (September 15, 1254-January 8, 1324) was a well-traveled Venetian explorer and trader. He intrigued audiences with his tales of magnificent palaces filled with precious stones, rivers filled with gold, and "men with tails" (aka, monkeys) who threw nuts as large as a man's head (aka, coconuts). He described things that no one had ever witnessed, and so no one believed him. His audiences were certain he had never... see more