<P> High heels are a type of shoe in which the heel, compared to the toe, is significantly higher off of the ground . These shoes go beyond simply protecting the foot from the ground or improve efficiency of walking . High heels make the wearer taller, accentuating the calf muscle and the length of the leg overall . There are many types of high heels, which come in different styles, colors, and materials, and can be found all over the world . They have significant cultural and fashionable meanings attached to them, which have been largely shaped by historical contexts over the past 1000 years . </P> <P> High heels have a long, rich history, dating as far back as the tenth century . The Persian cavalry, for example, wore a kind of boot with heels in order to ensure their feet stayed in the stirrups . Furthermore, research indicates that heels kept arrow - shooting riders, who stood up on galloping horses, safely on the horse . Figure 1 shows that this trend has translated into the popular 21st century cowboy boot . Owning horses was expensive and time - consuming, so to wear heels implied the wearer had significant wealth . This practical and effective use of the heel has set the standard for most horse - back riding shoes throughout history and even into the present day . Later, in the 12 century, in India, heels become visible again . The image of a statue from the Ramappa Temple proves this, showing an Indian woman's foot clad in a raised shoe . Then, during the Medieval period, both men and women wore platform shoes in order to raise themselves out of the trash and excrement filled streets . In 1430, chopines were 30 inches (76 cm) high, at times . Venetian law then limited the height to three inches--but this regulation was widely ignored . A 17th - century law in Massachusetts announced that women would be subjected to the same treatment as witches if they lured men into marriage via the use of high - heeled shoes . </P> <P> Modern high heels were brought to Europe by emissaries of Shāh Abbās I of Persia in the early 17th century . Men wore them to imply their upper - class status; only someone who did not have to work could afford, both financially and practically, to wear such extravagant shoes . As Figure 2 depicts, royalty such as King Louis XIV wore heels to impart status . As the shoes caught on, and other members of society began donning high heels, elite members ordered their heels to be made even higher to distinguish themselves from lower classes . Authorities even began regulating the length of a high heel's point according to social rank . Klaus Carl includes these lengths in his book Shoes: "1⁄2 inch for commoners, 1 inch for the bourgeois, 1 and 1⁄2 inches for knights, 2 inches for nobles, and 2 and 1⁄2 inches for princes ." As women took to appropriating this style, the heels' width changed in another fundamental way . Men wore thick heels, while women wore skinny ones . Then, when Enlightenment ideals such as science, nature, and logic took hold of many European societies, men gradually stopped wearing heels . After the French Revolution in the late 1780s, heels, femininity, and superficiality all became intertwined . In this way, heels became much more associated with a woman's supposed sense of impracticality and extravagance . </P>

When was the first pair of high heels invented
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