The earliest known elevator is linked to Archimedes, whom the Roman architect Vitruvius credits with building one around 236 BC. Romans used hoists on hemp ropes, powered by people or animals, and the Colosseum had roughly 25 lifts for raising animals. The biggest leap came with the screw drive, first used in a passenger elevator in 1793 in Russia. Elisha Otis introduced a safety elevator in 1852 that stopped the cab from falling if its cable broke, and the first passenger model was installed in New York in 1857. Electric elevators followed when Werner von Siemens built one in 1880 in Germany.

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.