Solitary confinement began as a humane reform. Quaker-influenced reformers in late 18th-century Pennsylvania believed that silence and isolation would let prisoners reflect, repent and reform, a gentler alternative to flogging and public punishment. Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia, opened in 1829, held each prisoner in a private cell with a small exercise yard. The "Pennsylvania system" spread to prisons worldwide. But visitors such as Charles Dickens in 1842 found that long isolation harmed minds, and over time prisons dropped the ideal of penitence while keeping isolation as a tool of control.

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.