POLO

Polo is Thought to Have Originated in the First Millennium BCE in Persia.

Military forms of polo go back as far as Darius (500 BCE). Another early reference to the game comes from the Arab historian Al-Tabar (c. 839-923 AD) when he records a legend that the Persian king Darius III (c. 370-330 BCE) impudently sent a chaugn or mallet and a ball to Alexander the Great in lieu of his customary tribute. The sport of polo enjoyed great popularity in the Middle East and later China, Japan and India, where it was a popular form of recreation for the sons and daughters of royalty. Polo did not become a Western pastime until 1869 when British officers brought the game home from India.