Pharmacies are full of snakes, unicorns and crocodiles, and their origins go back to Greek gods and alchemy. Asclepius, the god of medicine, carried a staff with a single snake, which became a medical symbol from the fifth century BCE. The caduceus, the winged staff of Hermes with two snakes, was first used as a printer's mark by a 15th-century publisher and was adopted for medicine in the early 19th century. The unicorn was tied to healing through myth and through narwhal horns sold as antidotes, and King James I granted the Society of Apothecaries its charter and unicorn arms in 1617. Many of these markers still appear on drug packaging and shopfronts today.

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.