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• 
  Acre, Israel
  Acre (Hebrew: עַכּוֹ‎‎, Akko; Arabic: عكّا‎, ʻAkkā), is a city in the Western Galilee region of northern Israel at the northern extremity of Haifa Bay. Acre is one of the oldest continuously inhabited sites in the country.
  Historically, it was a strategic coastal link to the Levant. Acre is the holiest city of the Bahá'í Faith. In 2009, the population was 46,300. Acre is a mixed city, 72 percent Jewish and 28 percent Arab. The mayor is Shimon Lankri, who was re-elected in 2011.
  The source of the name Akko is unknown. The Egyptians used it as long ago as the second millennium BC, but as it appears in the hieroglyphics as merely two consonants, its pronunciation is unknown.
  In the Amarna letters, written in Akkadian, the letter "H" is used to signify the guttural Hebrew letters alef-heh-chet-ayin, and therefore it was possible to write the name of the city as if it were "Haca" or "Aca". Had the name not been preserved, we would not have been able to identify it with certainty with the name that appears in hieroglyphics. In Assyrian the name has been preserved with the spelling "AKK".
  
  wn.com/Acre,_Israel
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  Bolghar
  Coordinates: 54°59′7″N 49°3′23″E / 54.98528°N 49.05639°E / 54.98528; 49.05639
  Bolghar (Tatar Cyrillic: Болгар, Latin: Bulgar, Bolgar, Bolğar, Chuvash: Пăлхар) was intermittently capital of Volga Bulgaria from the 8th to the 15th centuries, along with Bilyar and Nur-Suvar. It was situated on the bank of the Volga River, about 30 km downstream from its confluence with the Kama River and some 130 km from modern Kazan. North of it lies a small modern town, since 1991 known as Bolgar.
  The city is supposed to have been the capital of Volga Bulgaria from as early as the 8th century. Regular Russian incursions along the Volga, and internecine fights forced the Volga Bulgar kings to intermittently move their capital to Bilyar. After a destruction of Bilar during the Mongol invasion, the older capital became a centre of a separate province (or duchy) within the Golden Horde. During the period of Mongol domination Bolgar acquired immense wealth, many imposing buildings, and grew tenfold in size.
  The Tokhtamysh-Timur war saw a marked decline in its fortunes. It was sacked by Bulaq-Temir in 1361, endangered by Timur, looted by Russian pirates (ushkuiniki), and destroyed in 1431 by Vasily the Blind of Muscovy. As a Muslim religious center Bolgar persevered until the mid-16th century when the Khanate of Kazan was conquered by the Russian czar Ivan IV and incorporated into the Russian state.
  
  wn.com/Bolghar
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  Bukhara
  Bukhara (Tajik: Бухоро Bukhoro, Persian: بخارا; Uzbek: Buxoro; Russian: Бухара Bukhara), from the Soghdian βuxārak ("lucky place"), is the capital of the Bukhara Province (viloyat) of Uzbekistan. The nation's fifth-largest city, it has a population of 263,400 (2009 census estimate). The region around Bukhara has been inhabited for at least five millennia, and the city has existed for half that time. Located on the Silk Road, the city has long been a center of trade, scholarship, culture, and religion. The historic center of Bukhara, which contains numerous mosques and madrassas, has been listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. Ethnic Uzbek may constitute the largest element in Bukhara, with the native Tajiks being as numerous. The city long has had a mixed population including Jews and other ethnic minorities.
  Bukhara was known as Bokhara in 19th and early 20th century English publications and as Buhe/Puhe（捕喝） in Tang Chinese.
  Persian-speaking Soghdians inhabited the area, and some centuries later the Persian language became dominant among them. Encyclopædia Iranica mentions that the name Bukhara is possibly derived from the Soghdian βuxārak (Place of Good Fortune).
  
  wn.com/Bukhara
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  Burma
  Burma ⁱ/ˈbɜrmə/ BUR-mə, also known as Myanmar ⁱ/ˌmjɑːnˈmɑr/ MYAHN--MAR, is a country in South Asia and Southeast Asia. It is bordered by India, Bangladesh, China, Laos and Thailand. One-third of Burma's total perimeter of 1,930 kilometres (1,200 mi) forms an uninterrupted coastline along the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea. At 676,578 km² (261,227 sq mi), it is the 40th largest country in the world and the second largest country in Southeast Asia. Burma is also the 24th most populous country in the world with over 60.28 million people.
  Burma is home to some of the early civilizations of Southeast Asia including the Pyu and the Mon. In the 9th century, the Burmans of the Kingdom of Nanzhao, entered the upper Irrawaddy valley and, following the establishment of the Pagan Empire in the 1050s, the Burmese language and culture slowly became dominant in the country. During this period, Theravada Buddhism gradually became the predominant religion of the country. The Pagan Empire fell due to the Mongol invasions (1277–1301), and several warring states emerged. In the second half of the 16th century, the country was reunified by the Taungoo Dynasty which for a brief period was the largest empire in the history of Southeast Asia. The early 19th century Konbaung Dynasty ruled over an area that included modern Burma as well as Manipur and Assam. The country was colonized by Britain following three Anglo-Burmese Wars (1824–1885).
  
  wn.com/Burma
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  Constantinople
  Constantinople (Greek: Κωνσταντινούπολις, Konstantinoúpolis; Latin: Constantinopolis; Ottoman Turkish: قسطنطینیه, Qostantiniyye; and modern Turkish: İstanbul) was the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, the Latin and the Ottoman Empires. It was founded in AD 330, at ancient Byzantium as the new capital of the Roman Empire by Constantine I, after whom it was named. The city was the largest and wealthiest European city of the Middle Ages, and shared the glories of the Byzantine Empire, which was eventually reduced to the city and its environs.
  Although besieged on numerous occasions by various peoples, it was taken only in 1204 by the army of the Fourth Crusade, in 1261 by Michael VIII, and in 1453 by the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II. An inner wall was erected by Constantine I, and the city was surrounded by a triple wall of fortifications, begun during the 5th century by Theodosius II. The city was built on seven hills as well as on the Bosporus, and thus presented an impregnable fortress enclosing magnificent palaces, domes and towers. The Church of Hagia Sophia, the sacred palace of the emperors, the hippodrome, and the Golden Gate were among the largest of the many churches, public edifices, and monuments lining the arcaded avenues and squares.
  
  wn.com/Constantinople
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  Croatia
  Croatia (ⁱ/kroʊˈeɪʃə/ kroh-AY-shə; Croatian: Hrvatska pronounced [xř̩ʋaːtskaː]), officially the Republic of Croatia (Croatian: Republika Hrvatska  listen (help·info)), is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of Central Europe, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers 56,594 square kilometres (21,851 square miles) and has diverse, mostly continental and Mediterranean climates. Croatia's Adriatic Sea coast contains more than a thousand islands. The country's population is 4.29 million, most of whom are Croats, with the most common religious denomination being Roman Catholicism.
  In the early 7th century the Croats arrived in area of present-day Croatia. They organised the state into two dukedoms by the 9th century. Tomislav became the first king by 925 AD, elevating Croatia to the status of a kingdom. The Kingdom of Croatia retained its sovereignty for nearly two centuries, reaching its peak during the rule of Kings Peter Krešimir IV and Dmitar Zvonimir. Croatia entered a personal union with Hungary in 1102. In 1527, faced with Ottoman conquest the Croatian Parliament elected Ferdinand I of the House of Habsburg to the Croatian throne. In 1918, after World War I, Croatia was included in the short-lived State of Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs that declared independence from Austria–Hungary and co-founded the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. A Croatian state briefly existed during World War II as a fascist puppet state. After the war, Croatia became a founding member and a federal constituent of the Second Yugoslavia, a socialist state. In June 1991, Croatia declared independence, which came into effect on 8 October of the same year. The Croatian War of Independence was fought successfully during the four years following the declaration.
  
  wn.com/Croatia
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  Egypt
  Egypt ⁱ/ˈiːdʒɪpt/ (Arabic: مصر, Miṣr, Egyptian Arabic: [mɑsˤɾ] ; Coptic: Ⲭⲏⲙⲓ, Kīmi ; Sahidic Coptic: ⲕⲏⲙⲉ, Kēme), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic:  جمهوريّة مصر العربيّة (help·info), is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world. Covering an area of about 1,010,000 square kilometers (390,000 sq mi), Egypt is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south and Libya to the west.
  Egypt is one of the most populous countries in Africa and the Middle East. The great majority of its over 81 million people live near the banks of the Nile River, in an area of about 40,000 square kilometers (15,000 sq mi), where the only arable land is found. The large areas of the Sahara Desert are sparsely inhabited. About half of Egypt's residents live in urban areas, with most spread across the densely populated centres of greater Cairo, Alexandria and other major cities in the Nile Delta.
  
  wn.com/Egypt
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  Genoa
  Genoa  /ˈdʒɛnoʊ.ə/ (Italian: Genova [ˈdʒɛːnova] ( listen); Genoese and Ligurian Zena [ˈzeːna]; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is the capital of Liguria and the sixth largest city in Italy, with a population of 608,676 within its administrative limits on a land area of 243.6 km² (94 sq mi). The urban zone of Genoa extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 718,896. The urban area of Genoa has a population of 800,709. In the metropolitan area live between 859,000 and 1.4 million or 1.5 million people. Genoa is one of Europe's largest cities on the Mediterranean Sea and the largest seaport in Italy.
  Genoa has been nicknamed la Superba ("the Superb one") due to its glorious past and impressive landmarks. Part of the old town of Genoa was inscribed on the World Heritage List (UNESCO) in 2006 (see below). The city's rich art, music, gastronomy, architecture and history, allowed it to become the 2004's European Capital of Culture. It is the birthplace of Christopher Columbus.
  
  wn.com/Genoa
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  Hormozgān Province
  Hormozgan Province (Persian: استان هرمزگان‎, Ostān-e Hormozgān ) is one of the 31 provinces of Iran. It is in the south of the country, facing Oman. Its area is 70,697 km² (27,296 sq mi), and its provincial capital is Bandar Abbas. The province has 14 islands located in the Persian Gulf, and 1,000 km (620 mi) of coastline.
  The province has eleven major cities, namely: Bandar Abbas, Bandar Lengeh, HajiAbbad, Minab, Qeshm, Jask, Bastak, Bandar Khamir, Parsian, Rudan, and Abumusa. The province also has 21 counties (or districts), 69 municipalities, and 2046 villages. In 2007, the population of the province was at almost 1.5 million.
  Although Hormozgan is known to have had settlements during the Achaemenid era and when Nearchus passed through this region, the recorded history of the main port of Hormozgan (Bandar-e Hormoz) begins with Ardashir I of Persia of the Sassanid empire.
  The province is said to have been particularly prosperous between 241 BC and 211 BC, but grew even further in trade and commercial significance after the arrival of the Islamic era.
  
  wn.com/Hormozgān_Province
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  Iran
  Coordinates: 32°N 53°E / 32°N 53°E / 32; 53
  Iran (ⁱ/ɪˈrɑːn/ or /aɪˈræn/;Persian: ایران‎ [ʔiˈɾɒn] ( listen)), officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (Persian: جمهوری اسلامی ایران‎ Jomhuri-ye Eslāmi-ye Irān), is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran", which in Persian means "Land of the Aryans", has been in use natively since the Sassanian era. It came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia ( /ˈpɜrʒə/ or /ˈpɜrʃə/). Both "Persia" and "Iran" are used interchangeably in cultural contexts; however, "Iran" is the name used officially in political contexts.
  The 18th-largest country in the world in terms of area at 1,648,195 km² (636,372 sq mi), Iran has a population of around 79 million. It is a country of particular geopolitical significance owing to its location in the Middle East and central Eurasia. Iran is bordered on the north by Armenia, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan. As Iran is a littoral state of the Caspian Sea, which is an inland sea, Kazakhstan and Russia are also Iran's direct neighbors to the north. Iran is bordered on the east by Afghanistan and Pakistan, on the south by the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, on the west by Iraq and on the northwest by Turkey. Tehran is the capital, the country's largest city and the political, cultural, commercial and industrial center of the nation. Iran is a regional power, and holds an important position in international energy security and world economy as a result of its large reserves of petroleum and natural gas. Iran has the second largest proven natural gas reserves in the world and the fourth largest proven petroleum reserves.
  
  wn.com/Iran
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  Jaffna kingdom
  The Jaffna kingdom (Tamil: யாழ்ப்பாண அரசு) (1215-1624 CE), also known as Kingdom of Aryacakravarti, of modern northern Sri Lanka was a historic monarchy that came into existence around the town of Jaffna on the Jaffna peninsula after the invasion of Magha, who is said to have been from Kalinga, in India. Established as a powerful force in the north, north east and west of the island, it eventually became a tribute paying feudatory of the Pandyan Empire in modern South India in 1258, gaining independence later with the fragmentation of the Pandyan control. For a brief period, in the early to mid-14th century, it was an ascendant power in the island of Sri Lanka when all regional kingdoms accepted subordination. However, the kingdom was eventually overpowered by the rival Kotte Kingdom, around 1450.
  It was freed of Kotte control in 1467; its subsequent rulers directed their energies towards consolidating its economic potential by maximising revenue from pearls and elephant exports and land revenue. It was less feudal than most of other regional kingdoms in the island of Sri Lanka of the same period. During this period, important local Tamil literature was produced and Hindu temples were built including an academy for language advancement.
  
  wn.com/Jaffna_kingdom
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  Liao Dynasty
  The Liao Dynasty (simplified Chinese: 辽朝; traditional Chinese: 遼朝; pinyin: Liáo Cháo; Khitan language: Mos Jælut), also known as the Khitan Empire (simplified Chinese: 契丹国; traditional Chinese: 契丹國; pinyin: Qìdān Guó; Khitan: Mos diau-d kitai huldʒi gur), was an empire in East Asia that ruled over Mongolia and portions of Kazakhstan, the Russian Far East, and northern China proper between 907–1125. It was founded by the Khitan Great Khan Abaoji around the time of the collapse of the Han Chinese Tang Dynasty.
  The Liao Empire was destroyed by the Jurchen of the Jin Dynasty in 1125. However, remnants of its people, led by Yelü Dashi, established Western Liao Dynasty, also known as Kara-Khitan Khanate, which ruled over parts of Central Asia for almost a century before being conquered by Genghis Khan's Mongolian army.
  The Khitan were a Mongolic tribe who originally formed a part of Tanshihuai's Xianbei state before submitting along with the Kumo Xi to the Yuwen chieftains after the state's disintegration. They considered themselves descendants of the legendary Qishou Khagan, who was descended from Tanshihuai (reigned 157–181). The Kumo Xi and Khitan separated as one body from the Yuwen after the Yuwen were defeated by Murong Huang of the Murong tribe in 344. In 388 the Khitan separated from the Kumo Xi. This began the written history of the Khitan as an independent tribe. In the period of Zhenjun (r. 440–449) they 'asked for paying tribute' (any presentation of gifts by foreigners were seen as submissive 'tribute') and presented famous steeds to the court of the Northern Wei. In the Xianzu period (466–470) Mofuhe Hechen of the Khitan leading the eight Khitan tribes (Xiwandan, Hedahe, Fufuyu, Yuling, Rilian, Pijie, Li and Tuliuyu) presented famous steeds and high quality fur to the Northern Wei at their capital Datong and the Khitan were 'allowed' to trade in the area of modern-day Miyun County of Beijing City.
  
  wn.com/Liao_Dynasty
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  Ming Dynasty
  The Ming Dynasty, also Empire of the Great Ming, was the ruling dynasty of China for 276 years (1368–1644) following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty. The Ming, described by some as "one of the greatest eras of orderly government and social stability in human history", was the last dynasty in China ruled by ethnic Han Chinese. Although the Ming capital Beijing fell in 1644 to a rebellion led by Li Zicheng (who established the Shun Dynasty, soon replaced by the Manchu-led Qing Dynasty), regimes loyal to the Ming throne—collectively called the Southern Ming—survived until 1662.
  Ming rule saw the construction of a vast navy and a standing army of one million troops. Although private maritime trade and official tribute missions from China had taken place in previous dynasties, the tributary fleet under the Muslim eunuch admiral Zheng He in the 15th century far surpassed all others in size. There were enormous construction projects, including the restoration of the Grand Canal and the Great Wall and the establishment of the Forbidden City in Beijing during the first quarter of the 15th century. Estimates for the late-Ming population vary from 160 to 200 million.
  
  wn.com/Ming_Dynasty
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  Mount Imeon
  Mount Imeon^{[pronunciation?]} is an ancient^{[clarification needed]} name for the Central Asian complex of mountain ranges comprising the present Hindu Kush, Pamir and Tian Shan, extending from the Zagros Mountains in the southwest to the Altay Mountains in the northeast, and linked to the Kunlun, Karakoram and Himalayas to the southeast. See also Roof of the World.
  A detailed description of the mountainous territory and its people was given in the Armenian geography index Ashharatsuyts written by Anania Shirakatsi in the 7th century AD (or possibly by Moses of Chorene in the 5th century.) According to the original Ashharatsuyts mapping reconstructed by Acad. Suren T. Eremian, the mountain system was divided into four branches (green dots in the map) corresponding respectively to four present ranges:
  The mountains bordered the lands of China in the east, India in the south, Aria in the west (the region around modern Herat, marked as ‘Arya’ on Eremian's map), and Khwarezm in the northwest.
  The mountain system was crossed by a segment of the Silk Road leading westwards from Yarkand to the Stone Tower in eastern Pamir (mentioned by Ptolemy, and shown on the Ashharatsuyts map too), then through the Wakhan Corridor and Badakhshan to reach the ancient major city of Balh (Balkh). An alternative Northern Silk Road went from Kashgar to upper Alay Valley, then crossed the Alay Mountains to enter Fergana Valley.
  
  wn.com/Mount_Imeon
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  Ormus
  The Kingdom of Ormus (also known as Ohrmuzd, Hormuz, and Ohrmazd; Portuguese Ormuz) was a 10th to 17th century kingdom located within the Persian Gulf and extending as far as the Strait of Hormuz. The Kingdom was established by Arab princes in the 10th century who in 1262 came under the suzerainty of Persia, before becoming a client state of the Portuguese Empire.
  The kingdom received its name from the fortified port city which served as its capital. It was one of the most important ports in the Middle East at the time as it controlled seaway trading routes through the Persian Gulf to India and East Africa. This port was probably located on Hormuz Island^{[citation needed]}, which is located near the modern city of Bandar-e Abbas.
  The name of the port, the island, and the kingdom is Iranian and ultimately derives from that of the Zoroastrian deity, Ahura Mazda, which becomes Ohrmazd in Pahlavi, Hirmiz in Manichaean Middle Persian, and Hormoz in New-Persian.
  The Strait of Hormuz (Arabic: مضيق هرمز‎ - Madīq Hurmuz, Persian: تنگه هرمز - Tangeh-ye Hormoz,) is a narrow, strategically important waterway between the Gulf of Oman in the southeast and the Persian Gulf in the southwest. On the north coast is Iran and on the south coast is the United Arab Emirates and Musandam, an exclave of Oman.
  
  wn.com/Ormus
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  Pamir Mountains
  Coordinates: 39°N 72°E / 39°N 72°E / 39; 72
  The Pamir Mountains are a mountain range in Central Asia formed by the junction or knot of the Himalayas, Tian Shan, Karakoram, Kunlun, and Hindu Kush ranges. They are among the world’s highest mountains and since Victorian times they have been known as the "Roof of the World" a probable translation from the Persian.
  In other languages they are called: Kyrgyz Памир тоолору; Persian: رشته کوه های پامیر‎ Reshte Kūh-hāye Pāmīr; Tajik: Кӯҳҳои Помир; Pashto: د پامير غرونه; Uyghur: پامىر ئېگىزلىكى; Urdu: پامیر کوهستان; Hindi: पामीर पर्वतमाला; Chinese: 帕米尔高原; pinyin: Pàmǐ'ěr Gāoyuán. Another Chinese name is Congling (cōnglǐng 葱嶺) (Wade-Giles: Ts'ung-ling) or "Onion Range" (after the wild onions growing in the region).
  The precise extent of the Pamir Mountains is debatable. They lie mostly in Gorno-Badakhshan province, Tajikistan and Badakshan Province, Afghanistan. To the north they join the Tian Shan mountains along the Alay Valley of Kyrgyzstan. To the south they join the Hindu Kush mountains along the Wakhan Corridor in Afghanistan/Pakistan, and also Gilgit–Baltistan in Pakistan. To the east they may end on the Chinese border or extend to the range that includes Kongur Tagh which is sometimes included in the Kunlun Mountains.
  
  wn.com/Pamir_Mountains
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  Quanzhou
  Quanzhou (Chinese: 泉州; pinyin: Quánzhōu; Wade–Giles: Ch'üan²-chou¹; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Chôan-chiu) is a prefecture-level city in southern Fujian province, People's Republic of China. It borders all other prefecture-level cities in Fujian but two (Ningde and Nanping) and faces the Taiwan Strait. In older English works, its name may appear as Chinchew or Chinchu or Zayton.
  The prefecture-level city of Quanzhou has an area of 11,245 square kilometres (4,342 sq mi) and, as of 2010 Census, a population of 8,128,530 inhabitants. It's built up area (Metro) is home to 6,070,617 inhabitants encompassing Licheng, Fengze, Luojiang urban districts ; Jinjiang, Nan'an and Shishi cities ; Hui'an county and Quanzhou District for Taiwanese Investment. Quanzhou is now the 12th Chinese agglomeration based on built up area in 2010.
  The prefecture-level city of Quanzhou administers four districts, three county-level cities, four counties, and two special economic districts. The People's Republic of China claims Jinmen County, more widely known as Quemoy, as part of Quanzhou, but the territory is currently under the jurisdiction of the Republic of China.
  
  wn.com/Quanzhou
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  Singapore
  Singapore (ⁱ/ˈsɪŋəpɔər/ SI-ngə-pohr), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, 137 kilometres (85 mi) north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the Singapore Strait to its south. Singapore is highly urbanised but almost half of the country is covered by greenery. More land is being created for development through land reclamation.
  
  wn.com/Singapore
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  Trabzon
  Trabzon (Turkish: Trabzon, see other names, Turkish pronunciation: [ˈtrabzon]) is a city on the Black Sea coast of north-eastern Turkey and the capital of Trabzon Province. Trabzon, located on the historical Silk Road, became a melting pot of religions, languages and culture for centuries and a trade gateway to Iran in the southeast and the Caucasus to the northeast. The Venetian and Genoese merchants paid visits to Trebizond during the medieval period and sold silk, linen and woolen fabric; with the Republic of Genoa having an important merchant colony within the city that was similar to Galata near Constantinople (across the Golden Horn) in present-day Istanbul. Trabzon formed the basis of several states in its long history and was the capital city of the Empire of Trebizond between 1204 and 1461. During the Ottoman period, Trabzon, because of the importance of its port, became a focal point of trade to Iran and the Caucasus. The population of the center urban is 230,399 (2009 census).
  
  wn.com/Trabzon
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  Venice
  Venice (Italian: Venezia [veˈnɛttsja] ( listen), Venetian: Venexia [veˈnɛsja]; (Latin: Venetia) is a city in northeast Italy sited on a group of 118 small islands separated by canals and linked by bridges. It is located in the marshy Venetian Lagoon which stretches along the shoreline between the mouths of the Po and the Piave Rivers. Venice is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. The city in its entirety is listed as World Heritage Site, along with its lagoon.
  Venice is the capital of the Veneto region. In 2009, there were 270,098 people residing in Venice's comune (the population estimate of 272,000 inhabitants includes the population of the whole Comune of Venezia; around 60,000 in the historic city of Venice (Centro storico); 176,000 in Terraferma (the Mainland), mostly in the large frazioni of Mestre and Marghera; 31,000 live on other islands in the lagoon). Together with Padua and Treviso, the city is included in the Padua-Treviso-Venice Metropolitan Area (PATREVE) (population 1,600,000).
  
  wn.com/Venice
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  Yuan Dynasty
  The Yuan Dynasty (Chinese: 元朝, p Yuán Cháo; Mongolian: Их Юань улс) was the branch of Mongol Borjigin dynasty established by Kublai Khan. Although the Mongols had ruled northern China for decades, it was not until 1271 that Kublai Khan officially proclaimed the dynasty in the traditional Chinese style. His realm – the Great Yuan Empire (t 大元帝國, s 大元帝国, p Dà Yuán Dìguó) – was by this point isolated from the other khanates and controlled only most of present-day China and its surrounding areas including modern Mongolia. It was the first non-Han dynasty to rule all of China and lasted until 1368, after which its remnants in Mongolia were known as the Northern Yuan.
  The Yuan is considered both a successor to the Mongol Empire and as an imperial Chinese dynasty. In official Chinese histories, the Yuan Dynasty bore the Mandate of Heaven, following the Song Dynasty and preceding the Ming Dynasty. Although the dynasty was established by Kublai Khan, he placed his grandfather Genghis Khan on the imperial records as the official founder of the dynasty as Taizu.
  
  wn.com/Yuan_Dynasty
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  Zhangjiakou
  Zhangjiakou, also known also by several other names, is a prefecture-level city in northwestern Hebei province of North China, adjacent to Beijing to the southeast. Its administrative area has a population of 4.35 million, and covers 36,947 square kilometres (14,265 sq mi). The urban area of Zhangjiakou is divided into Qiaoxi and Qiaodong Districts which have 473,193 inhabitants in 2010, but the prefecture-level city is much larger, spanning around 36,800 square kilometres (14,200 sq mi).
  Zhangjiakou is written 张家口 in simplified Chinese and 張家口 in traditional Chinese. It is Zhāngjiākǒu in pinyin and the name means "Zhang family gate." Older names for the town in Chinese include Zhāngyuán (張垣), used in the Republican era, and Zhāngjiābǎo (張家堡).
  Zhangjiakou was historically known to the Europeans as Kalgan until the mid 20th century. This name derives from the Mongolian name of the city, , "Chuulalt haalga" or shorter, , "haalgan" which means "the gate" (in the Great Wall). In Manchu, the city is known as (Imiyangga jase).
  
  wn.com/Zhangjiakou

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  Bento de Góis
  Bento de Góis (1562, Vila Franca do Campo, Azores, Portugal - 11 April 1607, Suzhou, Gansu, China), was a Portuguese Jesuit Brother, Missionary and explorer. His name is commonly given in English as Bento de Goes or Bento de Goës; in the past, it has also been Anglicized as Benedict Goës.
  He is mainly remembered as the first known European to travel overland from India to China, via Afghanistan and the Pamirs. Inspired by controversies among the Jesuits as to whether the Cathay of Marco Polo's stories is the same country as China, his expedition conclusively proved that the two countries are one and the same, and, according to Henry Yule, made "Cathay... finally disappear from view, leaving China only in the mouths and minds of men".
  Góis went to India as a soldier in the Portuguese army. In Goa he entered the Society of Jesus as a lay brother (in 1584), offering himself to work for the Mughal Mission. As such, in 1595, he accompanied Jerome Xavier and Manuel Pinheiro to Lahore. For the third time Emperor Akbar had requested that Jesuits be sent to his court. Goes returned to Goa in 1601. According to Matteo Ricci, these experiences allowed Góis to become fluent in Persian language, and a good knowledge of "Saracen" (i.e., Muslim) customs.
  
  wn.com/Bento_de_Góis
• Berke
  
  Berke Khan (died 1266) (also Birkai; Mongolian: Бэрх хаан) was the ruler of the Ulus of Jochi or Golden Horde who effectively consolidated the power of the Blue Horde and White Hordes from 1257 to 1266. He succeeded his brother Batu Khan of the Blue Horde (West) and was responsible for the first official establishment of Islam in a khanate of the Mongol Empire. He allied with the Egyptian Mamlukes against another Mongol khanate based in Persia, the Ilkhanate.
  Berke is a name used by both Turkic and Mongols. "Berkh" literally means "difficult", in the Mongolian language. "Berk" also has many meanings like "solid", "hard", "difficult" and "steep" in Turkic languages.
  Berke was one of the sons of Jochi, the eldest son of Genghis Khan, and Sultan Khatun. Berke was present, with several of his brothers, at the inauguration of his uncle Ogedei as Great Khan in 1229.
  In 1236, Berke joined his brothers Orda, Sinkur, and Siban and an assortment of cousins under the leadership of Batu Khan. The vast army, comprising some 150,000 soldiers, marched from Siberia and into the territory of the Muslim Volga Bulgars and Kipchaks, whom they subdued. Batu and Subotai sent Berke to the country north of the Caucasus to conquer the Kipchaks there. Next they devastated the principalities of Ryazan and Suzdal in 1237, and marched further into Russia. During the winter of 1238-39, Berke defeated the Kipchaks and imprisoned the chief of the Merkits. He afterwards subdued the steppe watered by the Kuma and the Terek.
  
  wn.com/Berke
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  Brian Dennehy
  Brian Mannion Dennehy (born July 9, 1938) is an American actor of film, stage and screen.
  Dennehy was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, the son of Hannah and Edward Dennehy, who was a wire service editor for the Associated Press; he has two brothers, Michael and Edward. Dennehy is of Irish ancestry and was raised Roman Catholic. The family relocated to Long Island, New York, where Dennehy attended Chaminade High School in the town of Mineola.
  Rather than immediately chase his dreams of stage and screen, Dennehy enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps in 1959, actively serving until 1963. Although he said in numerous interviews that he had spent five years fighting in Vietnam during the Vietnam War, even telling harrowing tales of being hit by shrapnel, it was revealed in the 1998 book Stolen Valor by B.G. Burkett that Dennehy had never served overseas at all during his time in the military. Later that year, Dennehy admitted to the tabloid The Globe "I lied about serving in Vietnam and I'm sorry. That was very wrong of me. There is no real excuse for that. I was a peace-time Marine, and I got out in 1963 without ever serving in Vietnam. I started the story that I had been in 'Nam, and I got stuck with it. Then I didn't know how to set the record straight." Nonetheless, in 2007 Dennehy once again told a reporter that he had served in Vietnam, this time Joanne Kaufman of the Wall Street Journal.
  
  wn.com/Brian_Dennehy
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  Cathay Pacific
  Cathay Pacific (SEHK: 0293) is the flag carrier of Hong Kong, with its head office and main hub located at Hong Kong International Airport, although the airline's registered office is on the 33rd floor of One Pacific Place. The airline's operations include scheduled passenger and cargo services to 114 destinations in 36 countries worldwide, including codeshares and joint ventures, with a fleet of wide-body aircraft, consisting of Airbus A330, Airbus A340, Boeing 747 and Boeing 777 equipment. The airline also operates fifth freedom flights from Bangkok and Taipei, its focus cities. Its wholly owned subsidiary, Dragonair, operates to 30 destinations in the Asia-Pacific region from its Hong Kong base. In 2009, Cathay Pacific and Dragonair carried nearly 23.2 million passengers and over 1.52 million tonnes of cargo and mail.
  The airline was founded on September 24 1946 by American Roy C. Farrell and Australian Sydney H. de Kantzow, with each man putting up HK$1 to register the airline. The airline made the world's first non-stop transpolar flight flying over the North Pole in July 1998, and it also operated the maiden flight to arrive at the new Hong Kong International Airport. The airline celebrated its 60th anniversary in 2006; and as of October 2009^[update], its major shareholders are Swire Pacific and Air China. It is reciprocally one of the major shareholders of Air China. Cathay Pacific currently holds the title of the world's third largest airline, measured in terms of market capitalisation, according to the International Air Transport Association. In 2010, Cathay Pacific became the world's largest international cargo airline, along with main hub Hong Kong International Airport as the world's busiest airport in terms of cargo traffic.
  
  wn.com/Cathay_Pacific
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  Christopher Columbus
  Christopher Columbus (before 31 October 1451 – 20 May 1506) was an explorer, colonizer, and navigator, born in the Republic of Genoa, in what is today northwestern Italy. Under the auspices of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, he completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean that led to general European awareness of the American continents. Those voyages, and his efforts to establish permanent settlements in the island of Hispaniola, initiated the process of Spanish colonization, which foreshadowed the general European colonization of what became known as the "New World".
  In the context of emerging western imperialism and economic competition between European kingdoms seeking wealth through the establishment of trade routes and colonies, Columbus's speculative proposal to reach the East Indies by sailing westward received the support of the Spanish crown, which saw in it a promise, however remote, of gaining the upper hand over rival powers in the contest for the lucrative spice trade with Asia. During his first voyage in 1492, instead of reaching Japan as he had intended, Columbus landed in the Bahamas archipelago, at a locale he named San Salvador. Over the course of three more voyages, Columbus visited the Greater and Lesser Antilles, as well as the Caribbean coast of Venezuela and Central America, claiming them for the Spanish Empire.
  
  wn.com/Christopher_Columbus
• Dori Jones Yang
  Dori Jones Yang is an American author and journalist specializing in topics related to China.
  Dori Jones Yang's most widely read book is Pour Your Heart Into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time (1997), co-authored with Howard Schultz, chairman and CEO of Starbucks. The book was translated into ten languages and reached several bestseller lists.
  In 2000, she wrote a book for children called The Secret Voice of Gina Zhang, which won the Pleasant T. Rowland Prize for Fiction for Girls and the Skipping Stones Honor Award for multicultural and international books in 2001.
  Yang's latest book, Daughter of Xanadu, was published by Random House/Delacorte Press in January 2011. It is a historical novel set in the time of Marco Polo and Khubilai Khan.
  Born in 1954 as Dorothy E. Jones in Youngstown, Ohio, Yang studied at Hathaway Brown School in Cleveland, earned a bachelor’s degree in European history at Princeton University and earned a master’s degree in international relations from Johns Hopkins University. She studied Mandarin Chinese and taught English in Singapore on a Princeton-in-Asia fellowship. She traveled extensively throughout East and Southeast Asia, as well as Nepal, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran.
  
  wn.com/Dori_Jones_Yang
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  Fra Mauro
  Fra (from the Latin: frater, or Brother) Mauro, O.S.B. Cam., (+1460) was a 15th-century Camaldolese monk who lived in the Republic of Venice. He was a monk of the Monastery of St. Michael, located on the island of Murano in the Venetian Lagoon. It was there that he maintained a cartography workshop.
  In his youth, Mauro had traveled extensively as a merchant and a soldier. He was familiar with the Middle East. He entered monastic life at a late stage in life. In the monastery, he became a mapmaker. Although he was no longer free to travel, due to his religious status, he would frequently consult with merchants of the city upon their return from overseas voyages. By 1450 he composed a great mappamundi (world map) of the Old World with surprising accuracy, including extensive written comments reflecting the geographic knowledge of his time. The map is known today as the "Fra Mauro map". A critical edition of the map was edited by Piero Falchetta in 2006.
  Fra Mauro created this map under a commission by King Afonso V of Portugal. Andrea Bianco, a sailor-cartographer, is recorded as having collaborated with Fra Mauro in creating the map, as payments made to him between 1448 and 1459 testify. The map was completed on 24 April 1459, and sent to Portugal, but didn't survive. Along with the map was a letter from the Doge of Venice. It was intended for Prince Henry the Navigator, Afonso V's uncle. It encouraged the prince to continue funding exploratory journeys. Fra Mauro died the following year, while he was making a copy of the map for the Signoria of Venice. The copy was completed by Andrea Bianco. A commemorative medal of the period struck in honor of his cartographic work describes Fra Mauro as "chosmographus incomparabilis".
  
  wn.com/Fra_Mauro
• Frances Wood
  Frances Wood is an English historian known for her writings on Chinese history, including Marco Polo, life in the Chinese treaty ports, and the First Emperor of China. She has argued in her 1995 book, Did Marco Polo go to China?, that the book of Marco Polo (Il Milione) is not the account of a single person, but is a collection of travellers' tales. On May 24 2012, she appeared on In Our Time on Radio Four, talking about Marco Polo.
  Wood was born in London in the late 1940s, and went to art school in Liverpool in 1967, before going to Newnham College, Cambridge University where she studied Chinese. She went to China to study Chinese in 1975–1976.
  Wood is currently Curator of Chinese collections at the British Library in London, England. She is also a member of the Steering Committee of the International Dunhuang Project, and the editor of the Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic Society.
  
  wn.com/Frances_Wood
• Gary Jennings
  Gary Jennings (September 20, 1928 – February 13, 1999) was an American author who wrote children's and adult novels. In 1980, after the successful novel Aztec, he specialized in writing adult historical fiction novels.
  Born September 20, 1928, in Buena Vista, Virginia, to Glen Edward and Vaughnye May Jennings, Gary Jennings attended little formal school after graduating from Eastside High School (of Lean on Me fame) in Paterson, New Jersey, and was mostly self-educated thereafter.
  His novels were known for their historical detail and occasionally graphic content. Jennings' novels are well-researched: he lived for 12 years in Mexico to research the Aztec novels, traveled the Balkans while researching Raptor, and joined nine circus troupes during the writing of Spangle. He also produced a number of novels for younger readers, such as A Rope in the Jungle and a history of the occult Black Magic, White Magic.
  Gary Jennings died in February 1999 in Pompton Lakes, New Jersey, aged 70, from heart failure.
  
  wn.com/Gary_Jennings
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  Giuliano Montaldo
  Giuliano Montaldo (born February 22, 1930 in Genoa) is an Italian film director.
  While he was still a young student, Montaldo was recruited by the director Carlo Lizzani for the role of leading actor in the film Achtung! Banditi! (1951). Following this experience he began an apprenticeship as an assistant director of Lizzani and Gillo Pontecorvo, as well as appearing in the 1955 Gli Sbandati.
  In 1960 he made his debut as a director with Tiro al piccione, a film about the partisan resistance, which entered for a competition in Venice Film Festival in 1961. In 1965 he wrote and directed Una bella grinta, a cynical representation of the economic boom of Italy, winning the Special Prize of the Jury at 15th Berlin International Film Festival. He then directed the production Grand Slam (1967) which starred an international cast including Edward G. Robinson, Klaus Kinski, and Janet Leigh. His cinema career continued with Gott mit uns (1969), Sacco and Vanzetti (1971), Giordano Bruno (1973), a trilogy about the abuses of the military, judicial and religious power; Tempo di uccidere (1989–1991), with actor Nicolas Cage [1]. In 1982 he directed the colossal television miniseries Marco Polo, which won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Miniseries.
  
  wn.com/Giuliano_Montaldo
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  Henri Cordier
  Henri Cordier (August 8, 1849 – March 16, 1925) was a French linguist, historian, ethnographer, author, editor and Orientalist. He was President of the Société de Géographie (French, "Geographical Society") in Paris.
  Cordier was born in New Orleans, Louisiana in the United States. He arrived in France in 1852; and his family moved to Paris in 1855. He was educated at the Collège Chaptal and in England.
  In 1869 at age 20, he sailed for Shanghai, where he worked at an English bank. During the next two years, he published several articles in local newspapers. In 1872, he was made librarian of the North China branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. In this period, about twenty articles were published in the Shanghai Evening Courier or the North China Daily News or the Journal of the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society.
  In 1876, he was named secretary of a Chinese government program for Chinese students studying in Europe.
  In Paris, Cordier was a professor at l'École spéciale des Langues orientales, which is known today as the Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations (L’Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales, INALCO). He joined the faculty in 1881; and he was a professor from 1881-1925.
  
  wn.com/Henri_Cordier
• Henry Hart (author)
  Henry Hart lives in Williamsburg, Virginia, where he is a professor of English at the College of William and Mary. In addition to two books of poetry, The Ghost Ship (1990) and The Rooster Mask (1998), he has written critical works on such poets as Seamus Heaney, Geoffrey Hill and Robert Lowell. He edited The James Dickey Reader (1999); and his study of Dickey, James Dickey: The World as a Lie (2000), was runner-up in nonfiction for the Southern Book Critics Circle Award. He has also recently completed a novel, Changshin Mission, and a third book of poetry, Rural Apocalypse. His poetry has appeared in numerous journals and in The Best American Poetry: 1996, and his essays have appeared in Twentieth Century Literature, The Southern Review, New England Review, and many other literary publications. Hart is also an editor of Verse, an international poetry journal.
  
  wn.com/Henry_Hart_(author)
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  Henry Yule
  Sir Henry Yule (1 May 1820 – 30 December 1889) was a Scottish Orientalist.
  He was born at Inveresk, Scotland, near Edinburgh, the son of Major William Yule (1764–1839), translator of the Apothegms of Ali. Henry Yule was educated at Edinburgh, Addiscombe, and Chatham, and joined the Bengal Engineers in 1840. He served in both the Sikh wars, was secretary to Colonel (afterwards Sir) Arthur Phayre's mission to Ava (1855), and wrote his Narrative of the Mission to the Court of Ava (1858).
  He retired in 1862 with the rank of colonel, and devoted his leisure to the medieval history and geography of Central Asia. He published Cathay and the Way Thither (1866), and the Book of Marco Polo (1871), for which he received the gold medal of the Royal Geographical Society. He also brought out, in collaboration with Dr Arthur C. Burnell, Hobson-Jobson (1886), a dictionary of Anglo-Indian colloquial phrases.
  For the Hakluyt Society, of which he was for some time president, he edited (1863) the Mirabilia Descripta of Jordanus and The Diary of William Hedges (1887–89). The latter contains a biography of Governor Pitt, grandfather of William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham. From 1875 to 1889 Yule was a member of the Council of India, being appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the Star of India on his retirement. Yule was a contributor to the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary, advising in Oriental matters.
  
  wn.com/Henry_Yule
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  Ian Somerhalder
  Ian Joseph Somerhalder (born December 8, 1978) is an American actor and model, best known for playing Boone Carlyle in the TV drama Lost and Damon Salvatore in the TV drama The Vampire Diaries.
  Somerhalder was born and raised in Covington, Louisiana, the son of Edna, a massage therapist, and Robert Somerhalder, an independent building contractor. Raised Catholic, he attended St. Paul's, a private Catholic school in Covington. He embarked on a modeling career from age 10 to 13, and by the age of 17 he decided to go into acting.
  In the summer of 2000, Somerhalder starred in the short-lived WB series Young Americans, a spin-off of Dawson's Creek. He played Hamilton Fleming, the son of the dean of a prestigious boarding school. In 2002, Somerhalder played bisexual character Paul Denton in Roger Avary's adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis' novel, The Rules of Attraction, alongside James Van Der Beek, Shannyn Sossamon, and Jessica Biel.
  In 2004, Somerhalder scored his breakthrough role when he played Boone Carlyle in the hit TV show Lost. Despite his character's death in the twentieth episode of the first season, Somerhalder returned to the role of Boone for seven more episodes between 2005 and 2010, including the series finale. Somerhalder was the first actor to be cast in a role for the series and the first character to die.
  
  wn.com/Ian_Somerhalder
• Italo Calvino
  Italo Calvino (15 October 1923 – 19 September 1985) (Italian pronunciation: [ˈiːtalo kalˈviːno]) was an Italian journalist and writer of short stories and novels. His best known works include the Our Ancestors trilogy (1952–1959), the Cosmicomics collection of short stories (1965), and the novels Invisible Cities (1972) and If on a winter's night a traveler (1979).
  Lionised in Britain and the United States, he was the most-translated contemporary Italian writer at the time of his death, and a noted contender for the Nobel Prize for Literature.
  Italo Calvino was born in Santiago de Las Vegas, a suburb of Havana, Cuba in 1923. His father, Mario, was a tropical agronomist and botanist who also taught agriculture and floriculture. Born 47 years earlier in San Remo, Italy, Mario Calvino had emigrated to Mexico in 1909 where he took up an important position with the Ministry of Agriculture. In an autobiographical essay, Italo Calvino explained that his father "had been in his youth an anarchist, a follower of Kropotkin and then a Socialist Reformist". In 1917, Mario left for Cuba to conduct scientific experiments, after living through the Mexican Revolution.
  
  wn.com/Italo_Calvino
• John Parker (author)
  John Parker is a British author and journalist.
  After leaving school, he found work at the Northampton Chronicle and Echo and worked in a number of local newspapers before getting a job in the Bahamas with the Nassau Daily Tribune. After working for Life magazine, he returned to the UK to work for the Daily Mirror as a sub-editor.
  He has had 35 books published in hardback, in Military and Investigative genres and biographies.
  
  
  
  wn.com/John_Parker_(author)
• Ken Marshall
  Kenneth Marshall (born 27 June 1950 in New York City) is an American actor. He is probably best known for his portrayal of the character Michael Eddington in the television series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and his starring role as Prince Colwyn in Krull. He also appeared in the movie Tilt with Brooke Shields and in the title role in Giuliano Montaldo's 1982 television miniseries Marco Polo.
  
  
  
  wn.com/Ken_Marshall
• Lamba Doria
  Lamba D'Oria (also spelled Doria) (1245–1323) was an Italian admiral of the Republic of Genoa.
  The brother of the capitano del popolo Oberto Doria, he was one of the best Genoese admirals, together with his descendant Andrea Doria. He defeated the Venetians in the battle of Curzola in 1298, where he took prisoner the admiral Andrea Dandolo (who subsequently committed suicide) and, according to a tradition, Marco Polo.
  After his triumphal return to Genoa, the commune donated him a palace in the San Matteo Square and other lands at Savona, where today a Palazzo D'Oria Lamba is still existing (such as others in Genoa and Piedmont). He was also proclaimed capitano del popolo. Emperor Henry VII gave him the command of 40 galleys.
  
  wn.com/Lamba_Doria
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  Marco Polo
  Marco Polo (ⁱ/ˈmɑrkoʊ ˈpoʊloʊ/; Italian pronunciation: [ˈmarko ˈpɔːlo]; c. 1254 – January 9, 1324) was a Venetian merchant traveler from the Venetian Republic whose travels are recorded in Il Milione, a book which did much to introduce Europeans to Central Asia and China. He learned about trading whilst his father and uncle, Niccolò and Maffeo, travelled through Asia and apparently met Kublai Khan. In 1269, they returned to Venice to meet Marco for the first time. The three of them embarked on an epic journey to Asia, returning after 24 years to find Venice at war with Genoa; Marco was imprisoned, and dictated his stories to a cellmate. He was released in 1299, became a wealthy merchant, married and had three children. He died in 1324, and was buried in San Lorenzo.
  Their pioneering journey inspired Christopher Columbus and others. Marco Polo's other legacies include Venice Marco Polo Airport, the Marco Polo sheep, and several books and films. He also had an influence on European cartography, leading to the introduction of the Fra Mauro map.
  
  wn.com/Marco_Polo
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  Matteo Ricci
  Matteo Ricci, SJ (October 6, 1552 – May 11, 1610; simplified Chinese: 利玛窦; traditional Chinese: 利瑪竇; pinyin: Lì Mǎdòu; courtesy name: 西泰 Xītài) was an Italian Jesuit priest, and one of the founding figures of the Jesuit China Mission, as it existed in the 17th–18th centuries. His current title is Servant of God.
  Matteo Ricci was born in 1552 in Macerata, part of the Papal States, and today a city in the Italian region of Marche. Ricci started learning theology and law in a Roman Jesuit school. He entered the order in 1571, and in 1577 he applied for a missionary expedition to India. His journey began in March 1578 in Lisbon, Portugal. He arrived in Goa, a Portuguese Colony, in September 1578. Four years later, he was dispatched to China.
  In August 1582, Ricci arrived at Macau, a Portuguese trading post on the South China Sea. At the time, Christian missionary activity in China was almost completely limited to Macau, where some of the local Chinese people had converted to Christianity and lived in the Portuguese manner. No Christian missionary had attempted seriously to learn the Chinese language until 1579 (three years before Ricci's arrival), when Michele Ruggieri was invited from Portuguese India expressly to study Chinese, by Alessandro Valignano, founder of St. Paul Jesuit College (Macau), and to prepare for the Jesuits' mission from Macau into Mainland China.
  
  wn.com/Matteo_Ricci
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  Odoric of Pordenone
  Odoric of Pordenone (real name Odorico Mattiussi or Mattiuzzi; c. 1286 – 14 January 1331) was an Italian late-medieval traveler. His account of his visit to China was an important source for the account of John Mandeville; many of the incredible reports in Mandeville have proven to be garbled versions of Odoric's eyewitness descriptions.
  Odoric was born at Villanova, a hamlet now belonging to the town of Pordenone in Friuli (Italy), in or about 1286. He came from a Czech family named Mattiussi. According to the ecclesiastical biographers, in early years he took the vows of the Franciscan order and joined their convent at Udine, the capital of Friuli.
  Friar Odoric was dispatched to the East, where a remarkable extension of missionary action was then taking place, about 1316-1318, and did not return till the end of 1329 or beginning of 1330; but, as regards intermediate dates, all that we can deduce from his narrative or other evidence is that he was in western India soon after 1321 (pretty certainly in 1322) and that he spent three years in China between the opening of 1323 and the close of 1328. On one of his trips, his ship was nearly capsized by a typhoon but they landed safely in Bolinao, Pangasinan, Philippines. He is said to have held a mass there, in around 1324. That would have predated the mass held in 1521 by Ferdinand Magellan, which is generally regarded as the first mass in the Philippines, by some 197 years. However, historian William Henry Scott concluded after examining Oderic's writings about his travels that he likely never set foot on Philippine soil and, if he did, there is no reason to think that he celebrated mass.
  
  wn.com/Odoric_of_Pordenone
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  Pope Clement IV
  Pope Clement IV (23 November 1190/1200 – 29 November 1268), born Gui Faucoi called in later life le Gros (Guy Foulques the Fat; Italian: Guido Fulcodi il Grosso), was Pope from 5 February 1265 until his death. He was elected in an election held at Perugia that lasted four months while cardinals argued over whether to call in Charles of Anjou, the youngest brother of King Louis IX of France to carry on the papal war against the imperial house of Hohenstaufen.
  Guy was born in Saint-Gilles-du-Gard in the Languedoc region of France. After reaching adulthood, he was an unlikely candidate for holy orders: widowed and the father of two young women before taking orders, he was successively a soldier and a lawyer, and in the latter capacity had acted as secretary to King Louis IX, to whose influence he was chiefly indebted for his elevation to the cardinalate. Upon the death of his wife, he followed his father's example and gave up secular life for the Church. His rise was rapid: in 1257, he was appointed Bishop of Le Puy; in 1259, he was appointed Archbishop of Narbonne; and in December 1261, he became the first cardinal created by Pope Urban IV, for the See of Sabina. He was the papal legate in England between 1262 and 1264. He was named grand penitentiary in 1263.
  
  wn.com/Pope_Clement_IV
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  Rafael Perestrello
  Rafael Perestrello (fl. 1514–1517) was a Portuguese explorer and a cousin of Filipa Moniz Perestrello, the wife of the famed explorer Christopher Columbus. He is best known for having been the first to land on the southern shores of mainland China in 1516 and 1517 to trade in Guangzhou, after the Portuguese explorer Jorge Álvares landed on Lintin Island within the Pearl River estuary in May 1513. Rafael also served as a trader and naval ship captain for the Portuguese in Sumatra and Portuguese-conquered Malacca.
  João de Barros (1496–1570) wrote that Rafael Perestrello almost became lost while sailing by the Andaman Islands, but ventured safely through territory that was rumored to be inhabited by native cannibals.
  Filippo Perestrello (also known as Filippone Pallastrelli), son of Gabriele Palastrelli and wife Madama Bertolina, was a nobleman from the Italian city of Piacenza who moved with his wife Catarina Sforza to Portugal in 1385, living in Porto and then in Lisbon to conduct trade. Filippo and Catarina had four children: Richarte (sometimes referred to as Rafael), Isabel (married to Aires Anes de Beja), Branca (who had natural issue by Dom Pedro de Noronha, 4th Archbishop of Lisbon from 1424 to 1452) and Bartolomeu, the latter of whom would become the father-in-law to Christopher Columbus when Christopher married his daughter Filipa. Richarte Perestrello (b. 1410) became a Prior in the parish of Santa Marinha in Lisbon, yet fathered two children who he legitimized in 1423. Rafael Perestrello was the grandson of this man, Richarte. Rafael's father's name was João Lopes Perestrello.
  
  wn.com/Rafael_Perestrello
• Ruocheng Ying
  Ying Ruocheng (Chinese: 英若诚; pinyin: Yīng Ruòchéng; June 21, 1929 - December 27, 2003), Manchu people, was a Chinese actor, director, playwright and Vice Minister of Culture from 1986 to 1990. He is best known for playing the part of the governor of the detention camp in The Last Emperor.
  Ying was born in Beijing. He studied in a church school in Tianjin in early years, and later graduated from the Department of Foreign Languages of Tsinghua University.
  His wife, Wu Ziliang, is a translator, and his son, Ying Da, is also a noted actor.
  Ying died at 1:35 am on December 27, 2003, at age of 74.
  Ying is the author of a memoir, co-authored by Clair Conceison, "Voices Carry: Behind Bars and Backstage During China's Revolution and Reform" (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2009).
  
  
  
  wn.com/Ruocheng_Ying
• Rustichello da Pisa
  Rustichello da Pisa, also known as Rusticiano and Rustigielo (fl. late 13th century), was an Italian romance writer best known for cowriting Marco Polo's autobiography while they were in prison together in Genoa. A native Pisan, he may have been captured by the Genoese at the Battle of Meloria in 1284, amid a conflict between the Republic of Genoa and Pisa. When Polo was imprisoned around 1298, perhaps after a clash between Genoa and Venice (according to tradition the Battle of Curzola), he dictated his tales of travel to Rustichello, and together they turned it into the book known as The Travels of Marco Polo.
  Earlier, Rustichello had written a work in French known as the Roman de Roi Artus (Romance of King Arthur) or simply the Compilation, derived from a book in the possession of Edward I of England, who passed through Italy on his way to fight in the Eighth Crusade in 1270-1274. The Compilation contains an interpolation of the Palamedes, a now-fragmentary prose account of Arthur's Saracen knight Palamedes and the history of the Round Table. It was later divided into two sections, named after their principal protagonists, Meliadus (Tristan's father) and Guiron le Courtois; these remained popular for hundreds of years, and influenced works written in French as well as in Spanish, Italian, and even Greek.
  
  wn.com/Rustichello_da_Pisa
• Simon Winchester
  Simon Winchester, OBE (born September 28, 1944), is a British-American author and journalist who resides mostly in the United States. Through his career at The Guardian, Winchester covered numerous significant events including Bloody Sunday and the Watergate Scandal. As an author, Simon Winchester has written or contributed to over a dozen nonfiction books and authored one novel and his articles appear in several travel publications including Condé Nast Traveler, Smithsonian Magazine, and National Geographic. Simon Winchester lives in New York and on a farm in Massachusetts.
  Simon Winchester was born in the autumn of 1944 in northern London. Winchester attended several boarding schools in Dorset. He spent a year hitchhiking around the United States, then in 1963 went up to St Catherine's College, Oxford to study geology. He graduated in 1966 with a degree in geology and found work with Falconbridge of Africa, a Canadian mining company. His first assignment was to work as a field geologist searching for copper deposits in Uganda.
  
  wn.com/Simon_Winchester
• 
  Tatars
  Tatars (Tatar: Tatarlar / Татарлар, sometimes spelled Tartars) are a Turkic people, numbering around 7 million. The majority of Tatars live in the Russian Federation, with a population of 5.5 million, 2 million of which in the republic of Tatarstan, 1 million in the republic of Bashkortostan and other 2.5 million in different regions of Russia. Significant minority populations are found in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Ukraine.
  The Tatars originated with the Tatar confederation in the north-eastern Gobi desert in the 5th century. After subjugation in the 9th century by the Khitans, they migrated southward. In the 13th century Mongol Empire, they were subjugated under Genghis Khan and reassigned once again particularly by his son Jochi. Under the leadership of his grandson Batu Khan, they moved westwards, forming part of the Golden Horde which dominated the Eurasian steppe during the 14th and 15th centuries. In Europe, they were assimilated by the local populations or their name spread to the conquered peoples: Kipchaks, Kimaks and others; and elsewhere with Uralic-speaking peoples, as well as with remnants of the ancient Greek colonies in the Crimea and Caucasians in the Caucasus.
  
  wn.com/Tatars

Marco Polo: Return to Xanadu (2001)

"Marco Polo: Return to Xanadu (2001)" Actors

"Marco Polo: Return to Xanadu (2001)" Director

• Ron Merk

• Buggin Out
• The Radar (remix)
• The Bridge
• Official
• Bomb Shit
• Whylin Out
• Think of You Now
• Combat Drills
• Best to Do It (Marco Polo remix) (feat. Royce da 5'9", eLZhi & Supastition)
• Blockshit
• Who I Be (Marco Polo remix)
• How I Get Down (Marco Polo remix)
• So Basic
• The Veteran
• Ambition
• Radio (Marco Polo remix) (feat. Exile, Ruste Juxx & Torae)

• Port Authority Intro
• Get Busy (feat. Copywrite)
• Marquee (feat. O.C.)
• War (feat. Kardinal Offishall)
• Nostalgia (feat. Masta Ace)
• Wrong One (feat. Wordsmith)
• Low Budget Allstars (feat. Kev Brown, Ken Starr, Oddisee, Cy Young & Kaimbr)
• Speak Softly (feat. JoJo Pellegrino)
• Time & Place (feat. Ed O.G.)
• The Radar (feat. Large Professor)
• All My Love (feat. Jaysaun)
• Lay It Down (feat. Rock Marciano)
• Go Around (feat. Buckshot)
• Hood Tales (feat. Kool G Rap & D.V. Alias Khryst)
• Heat (feat. Supastition)
• Rollin' (feat. Sadat X, JuJu & A.G.)
• For the Future (feat. Critically Acclaimed)
• Relax (feat. J*Davey)

• Truffle Shuffle
• Kwyjibo
• Hired Goons
• Stakes Is Higher
• Coffee Break
• Official
• La Guardia to Pearson
• Think of U Now
• Diamonds
• Newport (interlude)
• Beat Society
• The Greatest
• No U Won't
• Situations (feat. Rasco)
• My Rights (feat. Wordsworth)
• How I Get Down (feat. Skoob)