A student falls asleep as she holds a book containing a portrait of China's late chairman Mao Zedong during a lesson at the Democracy Elementary and Middle School in Sitong town, Henan province December 3, 2013. In a remote part of central China, the day starts at the Democracy Elementary and Middle School with a pre-dawn jog, some revolutionary songs and then an activity long since forgotten at other schools: reciting quotations from Mao Zedong's famed “Little Red Book”. While the ruling Communist Party that Mao led continues to hold him in esteem as the leader of the Communist Revolution, his radical policies and teachings have been largely shelved since his death in 1976 in favour of a pro-market approach that has turned China from a backwater into the world's second biggest economy. The 120th anniversary of Mao's birth is on December 26, 2013. (Photo by Carlos Barria/Reuters)

“This city in Bolivia's highlands has hired Aymara women dressed in traditional multilayered Andean skirts and brightly embroidered vests to work as traffic cops and bring order to its road chaos. About 20 of the “traffic cholitas” have been trained to direct cars and buses in El Alto, a teeming, impoverished sister city of La Paz in Bolivia's Andes mountains”. – El Alto via Associated Press. Photo: In this December 3, 2013 photo, an Aymara woman cops directs traffic on the streets of El Alto, Bolivia. The women wear the bright petticoats and shawls of indigenous women in the Andes, called cholitas in Bolivian slang, the main difference being that instead of bowler hats they wear khaki green police-style caps. Some don fluorescent traffic vests. (Photo by Juan Karita/AP Photo)

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.

Roof-topping enthusiast Daniel Lau takes a selfie with high-rise buildings down below as he stands on the top of a skyscraper in Hong Kong, China on August 15, 2017. A craze that began in Russia has now taken hold in Hong Kong, one of the world's most vertical cities. Mr Lau said he had been inspired by Russian climbers and that he was unafraid of the vertiginous heights he scales. (Photo by ImagineChina/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Pod of dolphins surf effortlessly through the waves in the wild traveling at speeds up to 20 mph. (Photo by Greg Huglin)

Take me away, deer, Russia. The Nenet people of Arctic Russia use reindeer and sledges as a prime mode of transport. The animals’ navigational ability means that in severe conditions they are sometimes the only hope of survival. (Photo by Kamil Nureev/Smithsonian Photo Contest)

A man stands beside the Philippine flag as colorful umbrellas adorn a village hall in suburban San Juan, east of Manila, Philippines, on June 27, 2013. (Photo by Aaron Favila/Associated Press)

A girl dances in front of the digital art installation “Light in Dark” created by teamLab, a collaborative of Japanese digital artists, during a special exhibition of “Shake! Art Exhibition! and Learn and Play! teamLab Future Park” at National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation (or Miraikan) in Tokyo, Japan, 19 January 2015. The exhibition is held through 01 March 2015. (Photo by Kimimasa Mayama/EPA)