John of Plano Carpini rides to Karakorum

1245

A grey-bearded Franciscan friar, commissioned by the pope to open diplomacy with the Mongols, set out across the steppes. He reached the camp of the new khan Guyuk, endured its cold and smoke, and brought back the first detailed European account of Mongol customs. His journey of fifteen thousand miles on horseback, completed at nearly sixty years of age, remains one of the great feats of medieval travel.