Technology meets Ancient World

[Viggen]

Lovers of archaeology - be it Pharaonic, Roman, Greek, Coptic or Islamic - can now log on to a new website to access more than 5 000 years of history. Project organisers on Tuesday launched the website, Eternal Egypt, against the backdrop of the Pyramids of the Giza plateau and the Sphinx. Work on the project began three years ago in a partnership between the Egyptian Centre for Documentation of Cultural and Natural Heritage (CultNat) and US technology manufacturer IBM.

 

"IBM funded the project and the Egyptian government contributed a team of experts to develop the website," said IBM project manager John Tolva. People logging onto the website will view multimedia animations, 360-degree image sequences, panoramas of important archeological locations and three-dimensional scans and thousands of high resolution images, according to a press release issued for the launching. "There are also five cameras set up from which people can get into and see live footage of the Giza pyramids, Qait Bey in Alexandria, the Mohammed Ali Citadel in Cairo, the Abu Simbel and Karnak temples in Upper Egypt," said Sabri Abdel Aziz, an official at Egypt's Supreme Council for Antiquities. The website also includes a virtual reconstruction of Tutankhamun's tomb as it looked the day English archeologist Howard Carter discovered it in 1922.

 

"Viewers can even examine the face of the Sphinx as it looked 2 000 years ago," according to the press release. CultNat director Fathi Saleh described the website as "the most comprehensive site on Egyptian heritage", adding that the project was realised "in a formidable effort by 150 Egyptian archaeology and technology experts". "All combined, the new technology has made it possible to see Egypt in ways we never imagined, to see our country as it was thousands of years ago," Saleh said. In addition to outdoor archeological sites, the website includes all artifacts within prominent museums in Egypt - all in high resolution images that can be seen from the comfort of one's desk. "This join venture between IBM and the Egyptian government is an unprecedented experience," said Amr Tawfik, general manager of IBM, Egypt. "This is a project that opens the grandeur of Egypt to the world."

 

to Eternal Egypt