Skyscrapers became possible when builders stopped carrying a building's weight with thick stone or brick walls and used a steel skeleton instead. Elisha Otis's safety elevator, shown in New York in 1857, made the upper floors of tall buildings practical to reach. Chicago's Home Insurance Building, completed in 1885, used a steel frame to support its walls and is often called the first skyscraper. Before that, the Great Pyramid of Giza held the height record for thousands of years. The Eiffel Tower, the Chrysler Building and the Empire State Building then each took the title, and modern towers still use steel or reinforced concrete frames with glass or stone curtain walls.

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.