A villager pours pesticide from a bucket as Mount Sinabung spews ash at Kebayaken village in Karo district, Indonesia's North Sumatra province, on December 4, 2013. The country has ordered the evacuation of 15,000 residents near the active volcano. (Photo by Roni Bintang/Reuters)

A man and his son ride a horse at Tahrir Square in Sanaa, Yemen on January 21, 2021. (Photo by Khaled Abdullah/Reuters)

The November 2018 Square Print Sale, presented by Magnum Photos and Aperture, brings together over 100 images to explore perspectives on transition and transformation in photography. Here: New York City, 1965, by Joel Meyerowitz. “A girl on a Vespa on her way to who knows where, when the light stopped her at the 72nd street crossing near the Dakota, where John Lennon would one day cross paths with his fate. She takes this moment to finesse a fingernail before she resumes her downtown journey, while I, stopping at the same crossing, but on foot, leap into the street to capture this vision of a dream girl before time takes her on her way”. (Photo by Joel Meyerowitz/Courtesy Aperture)

Italian singer Elodie performs on stage at the Ariston theatre during the 71st Sanremo Italian Song Festival, in Sanremo, Italy, 03 March 2021. The festival runs from 02 to 06 March. (Photo by Ettore Ferrari/EPA/EFE)

Fireworks explode around the London Eye wheel, the Big Ben clock tower and the Houses of Parliament to mark the beginning of the New Year in London, Britain, January 1, 2016. (Photo by Toby Melville/Reuters)

“Hippo Chase”. As we approached the camp the Selinda Reserve of northern Botswana our boat passed by a hippo resting in the water. I turned around to look back at the boat's wake and saw the hippo charging after us! The hippo must've been tired from an all-nighter because he was angry. He rose way up out of the water three times trying to chase our boat! He was coming at us with such force that he created a wake of his own. Photo location: Selinda Reserve of northern Botswana. (Photo and caption by Curtis Simmons/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.

In this Thursday, May 8, 2014 photo, Iranian coal miners push metal carts to be loaded with coal at a mine near the city of Zirab 212 kilometers (132 miles) northeast of the capital Tehran, on a mountain in Mazandaran province, Iran. International sanctions linked to the decade-long dispute over Iran's nuclear program have hindered the import of heavy machinery and modern technology in all sectors, and coal mining is no exception. (Photo by Ebrahim Noroozi/AP Photo)