The art of memory is one that is enjoying somewhat of a revival nowadays as people realize that the only real obstacle to success is
intelligence, and this includes of course the ability to recall facts accurately and reliably. The
memories contained in greek, roman and later arab minds was vast. If ever built in real life, these "
memory palaces" would often give
London a run for it's money in size and
complexity. Each house, street, area had a specific purpose, and fitted into the whole.
Ironically this kind of huge static storage system was often an obstacle to progress as paradigm shifts resulting from new and revolutionary ideas often required people to abandon large sections of their palaces of accumulated knowledge which they were unwilling to do. It has been suggested there is evidence that famous figures in history such as Cicero, or Shakespeare were adept in the use of these memory techniques.