In 1260, the brothers and Venetian merchants Niccolo and Matteo Polo traveled east from Europe. In 1265 ,they arrived at Kaifeng, the capital of Kublai Khan’s(also known as the Great khan) Mongol Empire. In 1269, the brothers returned to Europe with a request from khan for the Pope to send one hundred missionaries to the Mongol Empire, supposedly to help convert the Mongols to Christianity. The Khan’s message was ultimately relayed to the Pope but he did not send the requested missionaries.