Georges Méliès's 1902 film Le Voyage dans la Lune, or A Trip to the Moon, is usually called the first science fiction film. Its twelve minutes follow a group of astronomers who fire a capsule to the Moon from a cannon, explore its surface, escape from the moon's Selenite inhabitants and return to Earth with one as a captive. Méliès used stage tricks, painted sets, dissolves and stop-motion to create effects no film had shown before. The story draws on Jules Verne and H. G. Wells, and on Offenbach's operetta on the same subject. Méliès played the lead himself as Professor Barbenfouillis, and the image of the capsule landing in the Moon's eye became one of the most famous in early cinema.

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.