Christopher Columbus is often credited with being the first European to reach the Americas, but Norse sailors got there first. Leif Erikson and possibly other Norsemen explored Vinland, a stretch of coastal North America. Archaeologists excavating L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland have confirmed that at least one Norse settlement existed there, matching the account given in the Saga of Erik the Red. The site shows Norse buildings and tools from around the year 1000, roughly five centuries before Columbus's 1492 voyage. The discovery remains the only confirmed Norse site in North America.

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.