Edward King, Viscount Kingsborough, produced Antiquities of Mexico between 1831 and 1848, a nine-volume series of facsimiles reproducing nearly all pre-Hispanic Mesoamerican books then held in European collections. The Italian artist Agostino Aglio traced each panel and hand-painted many lithographs, and the books include Mayan astronomical tables, Mixtec genealogies and records of rites. The project nearly ruined Kingsborough, who was jailed in Dublin over unpaid debts and died of typhoid in 1837. The volumes matter because the Spanish conquest led to mass book burning, and only about twenty pre-Hispanic manuscripts survive. In many cases the facsimiles are now the clearest record of books whose originals have decayed. Kingsborough also argued, without evidence, that Mexico's peoples descended from the Lost Tribes of Israel.

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.