Marco Polo (1254–1324) was not the only medieval European to travel the Silk Road, but he is probably the most famous. Marco lived in Venice, an important center for commerce with the East, by which his father and uncle prospered. In 1271, the seventeen-year-old Marco joined them on a journey that would last twenty-four years and take him more than 24,000 miles, through the bleak deserts and rugged mountains of the Middle East and Central Asia, and further than any of his European predecessors—to China and the court of Khubilai Khan (1214–1294), the ruler of the Mongols (called "Tartars" by Marco) who controlled the largest empire in the world. Marco, who had mastered several languages, became the trusted agent of Khubilai Khan and stayed at his court for seventeen years. To allow him to travel freely through the vast Mongol territories, Khubilai gave Marco a passport, similar to one now in the Metropolitan Museum. But instead of being made of iron and silver, Marco's passport was made of gold.