The Armenian genocide was the systematic destruction of the Armenian people in the Ottoman Empire during the First World War, carried out by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress. From April 1915, Ottoman authorities arrested Armenian intellectuals in Constantinople and sent Armenians on death marches to the Syrian desert, where they were deprived of food and water and subjected to massacres. An estimated 800,000 to 1.2 million people were killed, and between 100,000 and 200,000 women and children were forcibly converted to Islam. Armenian property was confiscated. The killings mostly ended by early 1917, though massacres of survivors continued after the war. Most historians outside Turkey accept it as genocide, while the Turkish government disputes the term.

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.