People walk along the sea front at Blyth in Northumberland in North East England on Monday, May 24, 2021. (Photo by Owen Humphreys/PA Images via Getty Images)

This photograph taken during a government organised media tour shows people in traditional costume standing in Potala Palace Square as the Potala Palace – classified as a World Heritage Site by Unesco in 1994 – is seen in the background in the regional capital Lhasa, in China's Tibet Autonomous Region, on June 1, 2021. (Photo by Hector Retamal/AFP Photo)

An actor dressed as Tyrion Lannister, poses for photographers with fake severed head before the screening of final episode of “Game of Thrones” on 20-meter-high screen at RZD Arena in Moscow, Russia on May 20, 2019. (Photo by Maxim Shemetov/Reuters)

An owl peeps out from behind a rusty piece of farming equipment in Teddesley Park, Staffordshire, UK in the last decade of July 2025. (Photo by David Akers/Solent News & Photo Agency)

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.

“Eye of a toad”. Animal Portraits, Łukasz Bożycki, Poland. Early spring sees a pond near Łukasz’s home city of Warsaw, Poland, full of mating frogs and a few toads. On this March day, Łukasz shared the pond with them for an evening, sitting in the icy water in his chest-high waders, keeping as still as possible, despite the numbing cold, so that the amphibians could get used to him. “I wanted to find a fresh way of portraying the amphibians”, he says, “at water level”. Using a telephoto lens, he focused on one lone toad and waited for the sun to dip almost below the horizon before pressing the shutter, using flash to bring out the details in the shadow. His prize was “the glorious pool of sunset colour” and fiery glow of the toad’s eye. Nikon D80 + 70-300mm f4.5-5.6 lens + extension tube; 1/125 sec at f9 (-2.3 e/v); ISO 100; built-in flash. (Photo by Łukasz Bożycki)

The music group, Boyfriend, performs at the Gentilly Stage at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival in New Orleans, Thursday, April 25, 2019. (Photo by Doug Parker/AP Photo}

Female members of the Hammer tribe from the village of Turmi, situated in southern Ethiopia near the Kenyan border, dance as part of a ritual called the “bull jumping ceremony” that takes place during the passage of a young boy to adulthood, in Turmi, Ethiopia, 25 September 2019. (Photo by Stéphanie Lecocq/EPA/EFE)