Left abandoned and with no record of their locations, this myriad of underground quarries became a hidden peril for a city in full expansion.
It's when historians leave the territory of their expertise, get things wrong, appear on Question Time, host chatshows or write newspaper columns, that they become real celebrities; and, as some of them have found out, you become a celebrity at your peril.
Now, the boy has become a symbol for the perils faced by a record flood of unaccompanied children from Central America who are crossing illegally into the US.
The deep symbolism is enough; the leader of the only country ever to have used an atomic weapon laying a wreath in a city that has become a monument to the perils of our nuclear age.
TEHRAN — Already battered by international threats against their nation's nuclear program, sanctions and a broken economy, Iranians living here in the capital are now trying to cope with what has become an annual pollution peril: a yellowish haze that engulfs Tehran this time of year.
It is a carefully researched and well-written expose of what I hope will become a cautionary tale about the perils of the cult of personality in aid work.
Plaything perils at the daycare centre become a lesson in mortality, comradeship, prison-breaking and waste management in this near-perfect sequel.
And he has become a force in city and state politics, a man whom Democratic candidates ignore at their peril.
It was once known as a byword for the perils of live television, but in recent years the Brit Awards have become a bland affair.
The emergency in the Horn of Africa has become a catastrophe, where more than 300,000 children are suffering from severe acute malnutrition and are in immediate peril.
The peril of globalism is that it can conceal dysfunction behind a charming veneer, and can, in that sense, become a substitute for real progress.
