Carbonated water is made by dissolving carbon dioxide into water under pressure, which lets much more gas dissolve; releasing the pressure when a bottle opens makes the bubbles. In 1767 Joseph Priestley found that pouring water back and forth above a fermenting beer vat at a Leeds brewery infused it with fixed air, the gas now called carbon dioxide, and he noticed the water tasted pleasant. In 1772 he published a method that dripped sulfuric acid onto chalk to produce the gas. Within a decade inventors in Britain and Europe were making carbonated water on a large scale, and Johann Jacob Schweppe founded a bottled mineral water company in Geneva in 1783. Soda water got its name from the sodium salts added to adjust its taste.

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.