History in 3D is an ambitious project, recreating 3D virtual ancient cities for bird's eye view fly throughs. Here's their latest on the Campus Martius which used to be their army's mustering ground but which has some of Rome's most recognizable landmarks like the Pantheon.
It reminds me of the opening scene of the film "Gladiator", brought to us free of charge via the miracle of Sen. Gore's most excellent Information Superhighway.
They have more in the works, most notably the Column of Trajan which has an amazing series of carvings that wrap around it diagonally. This will possibly be the first chance most people have to see the details of the carvings which include Trajan's bridge over the Danube river, for 1000 years the longest permanent bridge in the world.
In any case, they have a bunch of these videos there. Recommended for all fellow history nerds.
Hat tip: The History Blog.
Amazing... And I've visited that site in real life.
ReplyDeleteTBH, it's neat but you need to have some idea of the history of what the buildings were for and all to deeply appreciate it.
ReplyDeleteNothing changed my world view of the Roman era like my trip to Israel in '14. Seeing Roman construction under the Old City portion of Jerusalem; gigantic blocks that were estimated by size and material to weigh over a hundred thousand pounds, so precisely fitted to each other and positioned that you couldn't put a business card between them. Then portions of succeeding civilizations on top of the Roman work with nowhere near that level of sophistication; just rocks and mortar. Simply mind-bending.