The question mark has a contested origin. A popular theory links it to a cat's tail, but Egyptian hieroglyphs had no punctuation. One explanation is that it came from the Latin word Quaestio, with its first and last letters stacked. From about 783, the Godescalc Evangelistary shows a diagonal squiggle, a lightning-flash shape later called the punctus interrogativus, which may have marked intonation. From the 10th century the sign was often used at the end of any clause, but in the early 13th century, as universities in Paris expanded book production, it was assigned specifically to questions. By 1598 the English term point of interrogation was recorded.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.