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TIL Rani-ki-Vav is an inverted, underground temple in India from the 11th century going 30m deep through a series of seven levels of stairs and four pavilions. With 1,500 sculptures designed to honor the sanctity of water, it is one of the best known examples of subterranean water architecture

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VBgw8 TIL John Batman was the founder of the town that became Melbourne, Australia. And originally he called it "Batmania". There's even a street named after him: Batman Ave.
lkvN TIL Frederick Douglass was the most photographed American of the 19th century, and never smiled in photographs to not appear stereotypical.
grOeA TIL that a Schandmantel was a torture device fashioned from wood and sometimes metal. Victims were made to wear this device in public where they would be insulted, humiliated and have rotten vegetables thrown at them. The Schandmantel was mostly used as punishment for poachers and prostitutes
WkONL TIL the African nation of Zambia aspired to beat US and Russia in the Space Race. Their "Afronaut" prep. program included using a tire swing to simulate weightlessness along with downhill barrel rolls for the g-force. They also had plans to Christianize the Martian population, among other things.
oRDEK TIL that the largest volcanic eruption in recorded history, in 1815, led to a "Year Without a Summer," causing widespread famine and the death of horses. This, in turn spurred, the invention of the bicycle as a new means of transportation.