CATALAN WORLD MAPS 45 



itineraries which the map was evidently intended to set out. 



In the west is the Oxus river (fl. Organci) shown, as on most 

 contemporary maps, flowing into the Caspian, and alongside it 

 the early stages of the itinerary, from Urganj (the medieval 

 Khiva) through Bokhara and Samarcand to the sources of the 

 river in the mountains of Amol, on the eastern limits of Persia. 

 These are the highlands of Badakshan where the route crossed 

 the Pamirs. East of this lies the lake Yssikol and Emalech the 

 seat of the Khan, the Armalec of other travellers, in the 

 Kuldja region. The delineation is then confused by the repeti- 

 tion of the Badakshan uplands, the mountains of *Baldassia', 

 a mistake which probably arose from a confusion over the 

 river system of southern Asia. Further east is 'Chancio' 

 (Kanchow, on the great loop of the Hwang-ho), and ultimately 

 'Chambaleth', the city of the Great Khan, and the goal of 

 travellers from the west. 



This, with several omissions, was in outline the route 

 followed by Marco Polo's father and uncle on their first 

 journey to the Great Khan's court. It is also possible to discern 

 traces of their second journey, accompanied by Marco, on a 

 more southerly route through Eri (Herat), Badakshan, and 

 along the southern edge of the Tarim basin from Khotan to 

 the city of Lop. The compiler, however, perhaps because he 

 confused this desert area with the Gobi, has transferred this 

 stretch to the north of the Issik Kul. 



A third route is indicated rather confusedly on the extreme 

 northern edge of the map. It is marked by a line of towns up 

 the valley of the Volga from 'Agitarchan' (Astrakhan) through 

 *Sarra' (Sarai), 'Borgar', and thence eastwards through 

 Tascherit' (probably representing the territory of the Bash 

 Kirds east of the middle Volga), and 'Sebur', or Sibir, a 

 medieval settlement whose site is unknown, but thought to be 

 on the upper Irtish. In this quarter, the information on which 

 the map was based was not drawn from Marco Polo. To the 

 south is a long east-west range, called the 'mountains of Sebur', 

 representing the north-western face of the Tien Shan and 

 Altai. In the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries 

 there were Franciscan mission stations at these localities, and 

 the details no doubt came originally from the friars. 



