After being motivated by an animated film called Alakazam the Great, Miyamoto originally envisioned an ox as Mario's main foe. Fellow designer Takashi Tezuka, on the other hand, believed the ox character's illustrations looked more like a turtle. Following that, the two collaborated to create a nefarious turtle-like Koopa leader who would go on to become Bowser.

Do you believe the Ark of the Covenant is hidden away in a government warehouse? Wrong. It's in Lara Croft's foyer, to be precise. Hey, it's a great way to evict lingering partygoers.

Francesco Illy, the founder of the Italian coffee roasting company, was actually born in TimiÈ™oara, Romania. He later moved to Vienna, and then the Italian city of Trieste. He didn’t make a 2006 list of the 100 Greatest Romanians, however, which was topped by Stephen the Great and featured the likes of Nadia Comăneci and Gheorghe Hagi.

Without mentioning the city's diverse population, no list of interesting facts about New York is complete. The city's residents speak roughly 800 different languages collectively. Almost half of New York households speak more than one language, and one-third were born outside of the country. And, because New York has the most people of any city in the United States, one in every 38 people in the country is a New Yorker.

While the core games' stories span around 821 years, from the first Assassin's Creed in 1191 to around 2012 and Desmond Miles' modern-day plot, Ubisoft has constructed a large, Star Wars Expanded Universe-style backstory loaded with mythology and intertwined with historical events. According to the publisher, the first known assassin was Xerxes, who assassinated King Darius of Persia, according to the ancient Greek historian Herodotus, indicating that the custom dates back millennia.

While Assassin's Creed is already a household brand, it almost became something quite different. The original crusade-era period game was inspired by a Prince of Persia game called Prince of Persia: Assassin, which had a prince's bodyguard as the protagonist. Unhappy with the thought of a Prince of Persia game not being about a prince (which, interestingly, Nintendo doesn't see as an issue with when it comes to Zelda), Ubisoft's upper brass insisted on a new brand, and Assassin's Creed was created.

When you think about Greece, you probably see sandy beaches, turquoise seas, whitewashed houses, and blue domes. However, one of the most unexpected facts about Greece is that the bulk of the nation is really made up of mountains. It is one of the most mountainous nations in Europe, with mountains covering 80 percent of the land area. Remember to bring a decent pair of walking shoes!

The Hindu deity Lord Jagannath inspired the English word Juggernaut, which means "huge or powerful." Every year, a cart festival known as The Holy Rath Yatra is held in Puri, Odisha. The carts used for Lord Jagannath, his brother Lord Balavadra, and his sister Goddess Suvadra are enormous, and devotees would crush themselves under the wheels of the carts in order to achieve salvation. That is where the term originated.

The renowned "Bloody Mary" drink was conceived at the Ritz Hotel in Paris. According to legend, this renowned drink was created for the famed author Ernest Hemingway! Hemingway asked for a drink that didn't smell like alcohol, so he had vodka blended with tomato juice.

With a surface size of 26,300 square miles, the Aral Sea was formerly the world's fourth biggest lake. However, the lake has been rapidly diminishing since the 1960s. The lake is diminishing due to the divergence of the main rivers away from the lake for irrigation projects. As of 1997, roughly 10% of the lake had vanished, leaving only patches of smaller lakes. The majority of the south-eastern lake had already dried up by 2009, while the majority of the southwestern lake had dwindled to become a narrow strip along the old southern sea. NASA images from 2014 showed the eastern section of the old Aral Sea, which had completely dried out and is now known as the Aralkum Desert.

In Paris, there are more than 300,000 dogs. Dogs are unquestionably man's best friend, but Parisians take it to a whole new level. In Paris, people sincerely care about their pets, spending nearly half a million dollars to ensure their dogs receive the greatest care; it's not uncommon to see their owners giving their pups to a doggie spa session. We adore dogs here at MEININGER, so bring them along when you travel; they are more than welcome to stay in our hotels.

Flying kites without wind is difficult in the open air. However, at the Windless Kite Festival, kites can be flown indoors even if there is no wind. Every year, this festival takes place on the Longbeach Peninsula.

That's correct! There are several species of this bird, including the black-winged kite, black-shouldered kite, white-tailed kite, and letter-winged kite. These birds are said to be known for their graceful gliding in flight.

Who knew there was so much to know about kites? Aerial warfare has played an important role in history, particularly during both World Wars. Kites were the first air devices used to drop bombs on enemies before planes were invented, let alone used for war. They were also used to communicate and distribute messages through leaflets. Later in the nineteenth century, kites would be used to lift up a soldier for surveillance of their enemies and intelligence gathering.

Kites were first seen in America in the mid-1700s, according to history. Benjamin Franklin, one of America's founding fathers, famously flew a kite during a thunderstorm in 1752 to demonstrate an experiment about electricity and nature. This is the first documented kite flight in American history, and Franklin demonstrated that lightning carries electricity. He would later invent the lightning rod as a result of this experiment. What a fascinating fact about kites—it aided one of the world's best inventors in making a fascinating discovery.

The smallest kite in the world that actually flies is 5mm high; the largest kite in the world is 55 x 22 metres in size (630sq meters). The world's longest kite is 1034 metres (3394 feet). A kite's fastest recorded speed is more than 120 mph (193 km/h).

Nobody knows for sure where the kites came from. Flying kites is said to have begun around 3000 years ago in China. The first person to fly a kite was Chinese General Han Hsin of the Han Dynasty. Han was actually calculating the distance his army would have to travel to reach the defences.

In 1760, the Japanese thought flying kites was more fun than working. As a result, the Japanese government outlawed kite flying. During the Cultural Revolution, China also prohibited kite flying. Kites are known as Fen Zheng in Chinese. It's an abbreviation for wind harp. The name comes from the use of kites to transport musical instruments by the Chinese. Furthermore, Chinese people believe that looking at kites in the sky is good for their eyesight.

Libyan tea is thick because it is made with a lot of tea leaves and a lot of sugar. It is mostly made by women. The tea boils for 20 to 30 minutes after the two components are combined and a suitable amount of water is added. When the tea is done, it's served in little pyrex glasses with sumak and khobza, two popular Libyan snacks.

Muammar Gaddafi took power in Libya in 1969 and reigned for 42 years. As a result, he became one of Africa's and the world's longest-serving leaders of state. Gaddafi was well-known for being a despotic ruler. He did, however, serve his country well by increasing health care to the point that it was among the finest in Africa. He also boosted Libya's literacy rate from 25 percent to 87 percent during his tenure. When he was removed from power in 2011, his reign came to an end. The militia hunted him down and murdered him in his hometown, where he had sought safety. Gaddafi's net worth was $200 billion at the time of his death.

King Idris I was the first and last ruler of Libya. Born into the Senussi order, he was both a political and religious leader. Before becoming King of Libya in 1951 with the end of colonial control, King Idris I served as the Emir of Cyrenaica. Because of his conservatism, the king's rule was unpopular. Colonel Gaddafi, who eventually replaced King Idris I, was toppled in a coup orchestrated by Colonel Gaddafi in 1969.

Temperatures on the Sun's surface reach 6,000 Kelvin. However, this is far less than the atmosphere of the Sun. The chromosphere is a region of the atmosphere located above the Sun's surface, with temperatures reaching 100,000 K. That, however, is insignificant. The corona, which extends to a volume larger than the Sun itself, is an even more distant region. The corona can reach temperatures of one million degrees Celsius.

The Sun is a very large sphere, with a diameter 109 times that of the Earth. Inside the Sun, you could fit 1.3 million Earths. Alternatively, you could flatten 11,990 Earths to cover the Sun's surface. That's significant, but there are much bigger stars out there. For example, if placed inside the Solar System, the largest star known to us would almost reach Saturn.

Astronomers believe the Sun (and the planets) formed around 4.59 billion years ago from the solar nebula. The Sun is currently in the main sequence, slowly depleting its hydrogen fuel supply. However, the Sun will eventually enter the red giant phase, where it will swell to consume the inner planets, including Earth, in about 5 billion years (probably). It will shed its outer layers before contracting to the size of a white dwarf.

Whether you're with friends or strangers, Ladakh never fails to leave you with a strong sense of its culture. Hemis, Losar, and the Tak-Tok festivals all sing songs of endless pleasure and delight. Their ceremonies and dances are definitely worth seeing.