The modern flat-earth movement began with a Victorian Englishman, Samuel Rowbotham, who wrote as Parallax. In 1838 he carried out the Bedford Level experiment on a straight canal in Cambridgeshire, claiming that he could see a boat's hull at a distance where Earth's curvature should have hidden it, and in 1865 he published Zetetic Astronomy, saying that the Earth is a flat plane. 'Zetetic' means seeking, and Rowbotham insisted on trusting only what could be observed directly. Later experiments that repeated his test properly, accounting for atmospheric refraction, showed the curvature. Today's online flat-earth communities raise the question of how many members believe it and how many are playing a game.

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.