USS Missouri is an Iowa-class battleship completed in 1944, and she was the last battleship the United States commissioned. During the Pacific war she shelled the Japanese home islands and fought at Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Her quarterdeck was where Japan signed the Instrument of Surrender in September 1945, formally ending the Second World War. She later fought in the Korean War and was reactivated in 1984 to escort oil tankers in the Persian Gulf and to fight in Operation Desert Storm in 1991. She was decommissioned for good in 1992 and has been a museum ship at Pearl Harbor since 1998.

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.