High Middle Ages · South Asia · Exploration

1293

Marco Polo visits Pandya and Sri Lanka

1293

The Venetian traveler, homeward bound from China, stopped in the Pandya kingdom and Sri Lanka. He marveled at the pearl fishery in the Gulf of Mannar, the nakedness of the king's courtiers, and a ruby he claimed was as large as a man's arm. His accounts are our best outside sources.

More from 1293 High Middle Ages

In context

Also in 1293 (4 other events on record)

Mongol invasion of Java ends in fiasco · Southeast Asia · War
Ordinances of Justice in Florence · Europe · Politics
Earthquake devastates Kamakura, Japan · East Asia · Disaster
Venetian glass industry consolidated on Murano · Europe · Technology

Before and after in South Asia

Before: 1290: Jalaluddin Khilji founds Khilji dynasty in Delhi
After: 1296: Alauddin Khalji seizes the Delhi throne

Before and after in Exploration

Before: 1292: Marco Polo leaves China
After: 1295: Marco Polo returns to Venice

Era

High Middle Ages (1000–1300), one of 1,306 events from that era on Saeculum.