Absinthe is a spirit flavoured with wormwood, anise and fennel, and is famed for the "green fairy" and for supposedly causing madness. It began in Switzerland in the late 1700s as a medicinal elixir and became hugely popular in 19th-century France. It was banned in Switzerland in 1910 and France in 1915, after campaigners, and winemakers worried about competition, blamed it for violence and crime. Its reputation for hallucinations came from thujone, a compound in wormwood, but the amount in absinthe is far too low to have that effect. The real danger was its high alcohol content, usually 45-74 percent.

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.