The method of loci is a memory technique that turns abstract information into a walk through a familiar place. You choose a route you know well, such as the rooms of your home or the stops on your commute, and attach each item you want to remember to a specific spot, ideally with a vivid, odd image. To recall the list, you mentally retrace the route and each image brings back its item. It works because human memory is much better at storing spatial layouts and striking visual scenes than bare words or numbers. The technique is also called the memory palace, memory journey, journey method or mind palace. Competitive memory athletes use it to memorise long sequences such as decks of cards and random digits.

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.