In 1876, Gobineau accompanied his close friend Pedro II on his trip to Russia, Greece and the Ottoman Empire. Gobineau introduced him to both Emperor Alexander II of Russia and Sultan Abdul Hamid II of the Ottoman Empire.[149] He took his friend on a guided tour of Athens, a city he called "heaven on earth" due to its ruins.[142] Inspired by his last visit to Greece, Gobineau began to write what became his 1878 book Le Royaume des Hellènes ("The Kingdom of the Hellenes").