The archaeological sites of Rome are becoming more accessible: with 3D glasses and virtual reality, more than 7000 ancient buildings can now be explored on site or on the computer - just as they looked in the year 320 AD.
Launched in 1996, the international Rome Reborn project covers an area of 14 square kilometres in the Eternal City, which can be flown over in a virtual hot-air balloon.
The highlights are the Roman Forum and the Basilica of Maxentius on the edge of the Forum. Other sights such as the Colosseum and the Pantheon are to follow in the next two to three years, according to digital archaeologist Bernard Frischer.
"We chose the year 320 because we have the most information for this period and can therefore be as accurate as possible," added Frischer. According to the 69-year-old director of the project, he wanted to "show the world the marvellous monuments" as early as 1974. However, the necessary technology was lacking at the time. Since then, the project has been revised three times in line with improved technological possibilities - at a total cost of 2.6 million euros.
The dream of virtual gladiator fights and chariot races
The professor from the USA is already raving about how, in a further development of the project, users equipped with 3D glasses could one day re-enact a gladiatorial battle in the Colosseum or take part in a chariot race in the Circus Maximus.
Flyover Zone, the company behind Rome Reborn, is planning to reconstruct Athens at the time of the philosopher Socrates and Jerusalem at the time of Jesus Christ.
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