USS Constitution is a three-masted wooden heavy frigate of the US Navy, launched in 1797 at Edmund Hartt's shipyard in Boston. She was one of six original frigates authorised by the Naval Act of 1794, and was designed by Joshua Humphreys to be larger and more heavily armed than standard frigates of the period. Her early missions included protecting merchant shipping in the Quasi-War with France and fighting the Barbary pirates. During the War of 1812 she captured several British warships, including HMS Guerriere, which earned her the nickname Old Ironsides. She was retired as an active ship in 1881 and became a museum ship in 1907. Today she is still a commissioned Navy vessel with active-duty crew and sails occasionally under her own power.

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.