It was around 1497 that Vasco De Gama explored. Marco Polo on the other hand explored around 1271. That's 226 years earlier!
Marco Polo was a Venetian merchant believed to have journeyed across Asia at the height of the Mongol Empire. He first set out at age 17 with his father and uncle, traveling overland along what later became known as the Silk Road.
Upon reaching China, Marco Polo entered the court of powerful Mongol ruler Khubilai Khan, who dispatched him on trips to help administer the realm.
Marco Polo remained abroad for 24 years. Though not the first European to explore China—his father and uncle, among others, had already been there—he became famous for his travels thanks to a popular book he co-authored while languishing in a Genoese prison.
Vasco De Gama sailed from Lisbon in 1497 on a mission to reach India and open a sea route from Europe to the East.
After sailing down the western coast of Africa and rounding the Cape of Good Hope, his expedition made numerous stops in Africa before reaching the trading post of Calicut, India, in May 1498.
Da Gama received a hero’s welcome back in Portugal, and was sent on a second expedition to India in 1502, during which he brutally clashed with Muslim traders in the region. Two decades later, da Gama again returned to India, this time as Portuguese viceroy; he died there of an illness in late 1524.
History is filled with brave explorers who tirelessly sought to fill out the edges of our known world. Often these expeditions have taken years of determined wandering into uncharted territory.
Here is a list of the top 10 famous explorers who have returned as heroes, whose names echo out in history as the greatest explorers of their time shared by Toptenz.net.