USS Iowa is a retired battleship and the lead ship of her class in the United States Navy. Because the Montana-class battleships were cancelled, she is the last lead ship of any American battleship class. During World War II she carried President Franklin D. Roosevelt across the Atlantic to a 1943 conference in Tehran with Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin, and she later shelled Pacific beachheads before the Allied landings. After the Korean War she was reactivated in 1984 as part of a 600-ship Navy plan to counter the Soviet fleet. In 1989 an explosion of undetermined origin killed 47 sailors. She was decommissioned for good in 1990 and is now a museum ship in Los Angeles.

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.