So "The Travels of Marco Polo" is interesting in that it was written after he returned home to Italy, rather then on his route. This means he had to rely on memory to write it, which in and of itself could make it less accurate. Complicating the matter is that the book was actually written by a man named Rustichello da Pisa, who was a prison-mate of Polo after he returned to Italy (long story there). This man had not travelled with Marco Polo, and so he would have been unfamiliar with many of the places, and he also may have embellished details to appeal to European readers.
That being said, we do have strong evidence that Marco Polo visited many of the cities on the map. Even if the route isn't completely correct (and, indeed, many scholarly sources have slightly different routes), we know he visited these landmarks/cities, and that gives us a decent idea of where he traveled.
Thanks to everyone who helped me get my first nominated feature (and second overall). Also, if you enjoyed this quiz, please consider checking out the rest of the series!
I'm a big fan of this, congrats on your first map quiz! And the format looks great too. My biggest piece of advice is to never be afraid to experiment and have fun with the maps. Cheers and hope to see more to come!
Thanks! Means a lot coming from the legendary Jiaozira :) As I said, I'm planning a whole series of these, so hopefully this summer I'll be making much more content than I usually do. Stay tuned!
No problem haha! I thought about including cities, but many of them are now either obscure (like Trebizond on Turkey's Black Sea coast) or gone (like Ormuz in southern Iran and Karakorum in Mongolia).
The instructions explicitly ask for modern-day countries. I can see why someone could get confused, but I think the quiz is fine as is. I'll consider that suggestion if it's a recurrent problem though (as in, if a lot of other people make this mistake).
I was one of them.. my own mistake after some cities in the first 2 boxes didn't work I reread the instructions.
But might be an idea to make the cities less prominent, because they scream for attention. (which makes you forget what you have red before)> They are even more prominent than in quizzes that are actually cities. So I would give them another color, in lower contrast.
Nothing wrong with the instructions, but seeing the amount of likes the comment above got ( and how many people never comment or like) quite a few people seem to be "misleaded" and falling into the trap. So it would improve the quiz. But not a necessity (failing will help people learn something too ;) )
He mentions Zanzibar in his accounts, but he doesn't ever explicitly say he went there and he also gets a lot of details wrong, so it's most likely what he heard from other merchants. As for Madagascar, based on the location and wildlife he describes he probably actually meant Mogadishu--but, once again, he gets details wrong and doesn't actually say he went there, so it's probably based on what he heard from other merchants.
I plotted the dots out first (for this one I did it manually, but on later quizzes, I used the SVG dot tracer) and then I used "Bezier Curves and Straight Lines" tool to draw lines between them, curving them where necessary. Since Inkscape gives an option to connect nodes when you hover over them, it's not too difficult getting it where you want it.
Overall, it's not too difficult IMO. If you want to make a quiz similar to this, I'd recommend just playing around in Inkscape because that's how I figured it out.
I didn't use a tool; I just used a map and eyeballed it. I think it worked reasonably well, but I would recommend using the dot tracer because it's much easier and quicker.
I was planning on Zheng He, but probably not very soon. I want to do a few other explorers first, and I also have a lot of other quizzes planned. Beyond that, the semester is going to start soon so I probably won't be able to release quizzes as frequently.
If you want a similar quiz that's a bit longer/more involved though, you could try this one on Ibn Battuta.
Sure, if you want to, go right ahead! If you need any help, I'd be happy to give you some, especially since the CSS can be a bit tricky. You can communicate with me here if you want, or if you have a Discord, you can find me in the JetPunk server and message me from there. Either works fine with me.
Good luck, and looking forward to seeing what you come up with!
Well, what I did is I took the map from "Countries of the World" and just zoomed in on it until only the parts I wanted was in the frame. You could probably zoom in so that it shows both Africa and Asia. The Ibn Battuta one might be a good guide because he travelled to many of the same places as Zheng He.
Wow, that was really fun! I love the smooth transition that appears when the lines are drawn - all JetPunk map quizzes should have it in my opinion. Nominated!
Thanks! I'm inspired by quizmakers like Jiaozira, who always seems willing to write out thoughtful comments. If he's one of the top quizmakers on this site and puts the time and effort into answering the tons and tons of comments he gets, why shouldn't I do that with the comparatively few I get? I know that I like to feel like I'm being heard when I write a comment on this site, and so I try my best to make others feel heard when they comment on my quizzes :) And thanks for the nomination!
Congratulations JWaton24, it looks like this quiz will get featured in the next few weeks, and very deservingly so! This series is one of my personal favorites on JetPunk so a huge thanks to you for making it!
Wow, thanks! That's a very heartfelt comment ^_^ This was my first map quiz and I wasn't sure how well it would be received, so it's been a great experience seeing it not only get a ton of views but also climb so high to the nominations leaderboard! But, of course, the main point of this isn't just to get takes--it's for people to have fun and walk away learning something new. I'm glad to see that you, and so many other JetPunkers, are getting so much out of this quiz and series :)
I don't think there's any evidence of that. His ancestors may have been from Croatia, but most sources state that he was born and raised in Venice. Also, back then most of what is modern-day Croatia was under Venetian rule, so he still would have been a subject/citizen of Venice.
Obviously, most quiz takers on here know Polo is from Italy...however, it might not be a bad idea to mark the starting location with a star or something.
I think it's a bit too late to do this unfortunately, because I don't want to reset the quiz. Not a bad idea though, I might adopt it for the other quizzes in this series. Thanks for the suggestion!
Wow, 4 years to get to China. Then 16 years touring around East Asia. Apparently Marco Polo was in no mood for sight-seeing after that. It took him only 2 years (a bee-line by 13th century standards) to get back home.
Imagine going on a road trip in late 1999 and not getting back home until today.
Fantastic quiz! Well researched and the map was nicely executed. I think it was smart to keep it modern day countries since using cities would have complicated things and led to a lot of debate amongst us quiz takers :)
Thanks! Yep, that's exactly why I did it by country. It's especially relevant because many of the cities Polo visited either don't exist anymore or aren't particularly prominent.
Haha thanks Aficionado! You're probably one of my biggest supporters on this site, so I appreciate all the encouragement :) I don't know if all the quizzes of this series will be featured, but if not, I'm pretty happy with just this one. My goal isn't to accumulate takes, it's to contribute something new to the JetPunk community, and so even one of these quizzes being featured makes me really happy.
Thanks! The line doesn't disappear, I think it's just that there's less contrast between the green line and the blue ocean. It's still not really a problem for me though, maybe it's something to do with your computer? If anyone else is having this problem, let me know and I'll look into it.
Yep, thanks to you both! This quiz didn't initially have animated lines, but after seeing the incredible stuff overtired has done, I was inspired to look into animations. Even though he didn't directly help me on this quiz (although he has done so on some of my other quizzes), I definitely think he deserves some credit for the inspiration.
This is a great quiz. it has great graphics. And it is educational. Well done.
I think many quizzers will find it relatively easy to get 5/5, because there are frankly a lot of geography nerds on JP. That said, I challenge anyone to tell me they didn't enjoy the quiz itself. Great work.
Hah, thanks! It's not meant to be difficult; it was mostly just me experimenting with animations and trying to do something that hadn't been done before on JetPunk. But if you like a challenge, try some of the other quizzes in the series! There are a few that are harder than this one.
Literally so absurd that Palestine is not excepted as the CORRECT answer. Israel didn't exist before 1948. I guess this is just another Jetpunk fantasy.
Did Turkey or Iraq or Italy in the 1200s? I explicitly state in the instructions this is based around modern countries. If your complaint is against JetPunk not recognizing Palestine, then sorry, but there's nothing I can do about it--this is a featured quiz and I'm sticking to JetPunk policy. If you want to air your grievances elsewhere on the internet, be my guest, but telling random quizmakers that you disagree with their quizzes is not going to get you anywhere.
That being said, we do have strong evidence that Marco Polo visited many of the cities on the map. Even if the route isn't completely correct (and, indeed, many scholarly sources have slightly different routes), we know he visited these landmarks/cities, and that gives us a decent idea of where he traveled.
But might be an idea to make the cities less prominent, because they scream for attention. (which makes you forget what you have red before)> They are even more prominent than in quizzes that are actually cities. So I would give them another color, in lower contrast.
Nothing wrong with the instructions, but seeing the amount of likes the comment above got ( and how many people never comment or like) quite a few people seem to be "misleaded" and falling into the trap. So it would improve the quiz. But not a necessity (failing will help people learn something too ;) )
Overall, it's not too difficult IMO. If you want to make a quiz similar to this, I'd recommend just playing around in Inkscape because that's how I figured it out.
If you want a similar quiz that's a bit longer/more involved though, you could try this one on Ibn Battuta.
Good luck, and looking forward to seeing what you come up with!
Thanks for the nomination!
Imagine going on a road trip in late 1999 and not getting back home until today.
One criticism the lime green lines used for the East Asia portion disappear as they traverse over the blue of the sea.
I got stumped at first try because I was not able to see the line.
I think many quizzers will find it relatively easy to get 5/5, because there are frankly a lot of geography nerds on JP. That said, I challenge anyone to tell me they didn't enjoy the quiz itself. Great work.
You make some of the best quizzes on the site, keep making them!