The Persian Gulf region holds roughly half of the world's conventional oil reserves and 40% of its gas, beneath about 3% of Earth's land surface. The reason is geology: the Arabian and Eurasian plates have been colliding for about 35 million years, bending and fracturing rock layers and warping a hard basement into huge domes that trap hydrocarbons. Source rocks such as the Jurassic Hanifa and Tuwaiq formations and the Cretaceous Kazhdumi formation are unusually thick and rich in organic material, which is what turns plankton into oil and gas. Over 30 supergiant fields, each with at least 5 billion barrels, sit around the Gulf, and its wells produce two to five times more oil per day than the best wells in the North Sea and Russia. The biggest example is Ghawar in Saudi Arabia, the largest oil field in the world.

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.