Visitors crowd an artificial wave swimming pool at a tourist resort to escape the summer heat in Daying county of Suining, Sichuan province, China, July 11, 2015. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

Emergency responders respond to the scene of a 565-foot-tall crane that toppled and flipped upside down, stretching along nearly two city blocks in downtown Manhattan in New York, February 5, 2016. The massive construction crane collapsed in lower Manhattan during a swirling snowstorm on Friday, killing one person and crushing a line of parked cars in the first accident of its kind in New York City since 2008. (Photo by Brendan McDermid/Reuters)

Young Ukrainians dance at nightclub House of Meteorologists, May 23, 2014. Sunday's upcoming election in Ukraine has not only exposed the divide between east and west, but between old and young. Unlike their elders, younger people have no memory of Soviet life, and most see themselves as Ukrainian. (Photo by Evelyn Hockstein/The Washington Post)

“Double head vulture”. On the day of windy days during raptors migration some people in my country start to catch these tired raptors, so in this day we go to photograph some raptors and we saw these tow tired vultures, so we start to drag them away from the hunters until they reach a good hidden place, to make them safe until they start a new journey. Photo location: Kuwait. (Photo and caption by Mohd Khorshed/National Geographic Photo Contest)

Do you think that history is a science? Well, not exactly. First, and foremost, history is the state's “legend of wars”, it’s official regalia. Of course, public historians are not interested in scientific truth – quite the opposite. In this respect, any attempt to present a state’s history as altruistic and benevolent as possible is welcomed and encouraged – as opposed to any revisionism attempts that may be more accurate. In this matter, Chinese have surpassed us all – they revised in highly creative manner (but rather shamelessly) the technology already invented by Europeans, a process that resulted in oldest state on the planet. Here is an interesting paradox: ask any sinologist about the Middle Kingdom during second century B.C., and he will describe it to you in such a vivid manner as if he has been living there all his life – but as soon as you will ask him to describe Chinese history in the 19-20th centuries… let's say, his eagerness will be greatly diminished. However, we will discuss China in a different article, and in the meantime we will try to understand how exactly historic “legend of wars” is formed and functions – based on a specific and well-known example. A great example is Ferdinand Magellan's first voyage around the world.

A firefighter holds a red panda (Ailurus fulgens) from its tail while removing it from a tree at a residential area in Kunming, Yunnan province, July 3, 2014. The animal was spotted in the residential area and was brought down from the tree after residents reported its sighting to the police, local media reported. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

“The Net thrower”. The fisherman are conducting activities on Situgunung Lake. Photo location: Situgunung lake, Sukabumi, West Java, Indonesia. (Photo and caption by Dody Kusuma/National Geographic Photo Contest)