Now, you can tour some of the oldest and endangered places on the planet from the comfort of your home. You know all those times you’ve looked at the map and thought: so much to see, so little time? Google is now trying to fix that. The tech giant and CyArk (short for cyber archive), an Oakland-based organisation have joined hands to create Open Heritage, a project that allows you to explore iconic cultural sites across the planet, via virtual reality.
With the help of CyArk’s detailed 3D archive, and Google’s technology, you can take curated 3D tours of world heritage sites in danger. The aim of the project is to allow users to explore some of the most imperiled archaeological wonders on the planet that are under threat due to environmental, social and political reasons. At present, there are 26 such heritage sites you can tour including the Tower of London in the UK, Monastery of Gegehard in Armenia, Pompeii in Italy, the Al Azem palace in Syria and the San Antonio Missions in the United States. View the entire list here.
CyArk’s Iraqi-American founder Ben Kacyra started the company 15 years ago after watching (on television) the Taliban destory Mesopotamian ruins outside his hometown of Mosul. The company’s focus is to record heritage and cultural sites in the event of catastrophic loss. Over the years, CyArk has been able to work with the 3D scanning community to document large sites with laser scanners, high resolution cameras and drones to capture colours, textures and depth.Through their documentation of Bagan in Myanmar, the team has been able to help in the conservation efforts of the Ananda Ok Kyaung temple for a UNESCO pilot project to conserve monuments damaged by the 2016 earthquake. The data was put together in the form of an immersive tour with detailed commentary that is now available here.
Apart from the online VR tours, the data on Open Heritage is open sourced, and will allow for researchers and archaeologists to reference CyArk’s work for their own activities.