In this photo provided by Tasnim News Agency, relatives weep over the body of an earthquake victim, in Sarpol-e-Zahab, western Iran, Monday, November 13, 2017. An earthquake measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale rocked northern Iraq and Iran, the U.S. Geological Survey said on Sunday evening. Photo by Farzad Menati/Tasnim News Agency via AP Photo)

Photographer David Emitt Adams creates tintypes on discarded cans he collects from the Sonoran Desert. In his artist statement, Adams says that some are more than four decades old, which have earned a deep reddish-brown, rusty coloration. (Photo by David Emitt Adams)

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.

In this picture taken on Saturday, January 31, 2015, Zohreh Etezadossaltaneh, center, talks on her mobile phone, held with her foot, during a meeting at her friend's home in Tehran, Iran. Now 52 years old, the retired Iranian teacher who was born without arms has dedicated herself to helping others with similar disabilities live full and satisfying lives. (Photo by Ebrahim Noroozi/AP Photo)

A girl allows a butterfly to be placed on her nose at the Sensational Butterflies exhibition at the Natural History Museum on April 6, 2011 in London, England. The exhibition is divided up into five sensory zones exploring how butterflies see, hear, taste, smell and touch. The display containing hundreds of butterflies runs from April 12 to September 11, 2011. (Photo by Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)

Balal, who killed Iranian youth Abdolah Hosseinzadeh in a street fight with a knife in 2007, is brought to the gallows during his execution ceremony in the northern city of Nowshahr on April 15, 2014. The mother of Abdolah Hosseinzadeh spared the life of the her son's convicted murderer, with an emotional slap in the face as he awaited execution prior to removing the noose around his neck. (Photo by Araash Khamooshi/AFP Photo/ISNA)

Adele Clark, aged 8, looks at an animatronic Gallimimus dinosaur at the Natural History Museum on April 20, 2011 in London, England. The Age of the Dinosaur is a summer exhibition combining animatronic models, fossils and CGI film footage. (Photo by Matthew Lloyd/Getty Images)

A boy poses with a butterfly on his face during a photocall to promote the “Sensational Butterflies” exhibition at the Natural History Museum in central London, on March 25, 2013. With around 400 live tropical butterflies and moths living in the temporary facility, visitors will get the chance to see them flying freely as well as looking for emerging butterflies at the hatchery window. Running from March 29 to September 15, 2013, the exhibition is housed in a structure in the museum grounds. (Photo by Leon Neal/AFP Photo)