Magic Squares

Legends suggest that magic squares originated in China and were first mentioned in a manuscript from the time of Emperor Yu, around 2200 B.C. A magic square consists of N^2 boxes, called cells, filed with integers that are all different. The sums of the numbers in the horizontal rows, vertical columns, and main diagonal are equal.
If the integers in a magic square are the consecutive numbers from 1 to N^2, the square is said to be of the Nth order, and the magic number, or sum of each row, is a constant equal to N(N^2  + 1)/2.
As far back as 1693, the 880 different fourth-order magic squares were published posthumously in Des quassez ou tables magiques by Bernard Frenicle de Bessy, an eminent amateur french mathematician and one of the leading magic squares of all time.
We've come a long way from the simplest 3 x 3 magic squares venerated by civilizations of almost every period or continent, from the Mayans Indians o the Hasua people of Africa. Today, mathematicians study these magic objects in high dimensions - for example, in the form of fourth-dimensional hypercubes that have magic sums within all appropriate directions.