In 1920 the Strand magazine ran a Christmas headline that Arthur Conan Doyle had found fairies photographed in northern England. The photographs had been taken by two girls, Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths, in the Yorkshire village of Cottingley. Conan Doyle sent the prints to Kodak experts, who found no evidence of retouching but said a skilled person could have faked them. He dismissed the idea that working-class girls could pull off a hoax and relied on Edward Gardner, a believer in fairies, to investigate. Gardner concluded the family was honest. Conan Doyle then published the photographs in a 1921 article and his 1922 book The Coming of the Fairies. The girls later admitted the figures were paper cutouts.

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.