How did people live thousands of years ago? The University of Virginia’s Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities asked this exact same question. As a result, they decided to digitally rebuild the revolutionary city of Rome during the peak of its development (around A.D. 320 – the time of Constantine The Great). They figured this would be the best way to try and understand how humans lived so long ago.
The very first version of the Rome Reborn product went under construction 10 years ago, and the task was finally finished last year. Included in it were 250 highly detailed structures, and a total of over 7,000 structures in all. They used a 1:250 scale model of Rome that took forty years to create (from 1933 to 1973). This smaller scale Rome was actually constructed out of Plaster of Paris. Using laser scanners they scanned the Plaster of Paris model and created the virtual model. The original use of this model was to be utilized in a theater at UCLA. Since last year the Rome Reborn Project has seen many faces, it’s most recent being Rome Reborn 2.0 which improved the detail significantly. Google then joined in and offered to include Rome Reborn in Google Earth.
With Rome Reborn in Google Earth, it’s the equivalent of an virtual time machine, which can be used to study the history of Rome and other great cities of the world. If you currently have Google Earth (any version), you can enjoy touring ancient Rome. Not only can you navigate around the structures, but you can also go in them, and enter areas like the Colosseum and even the Roman Senate. With more time, more information will be added researches believe. They also hope that by pioneering this research into the past – other researchers will catch some inspiration and create 3D models of other forgotten cities.
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Wow! This is awesome.
Would love to know the ancient Rome.
January 23rd, 2009 at 11:12 am
Again, these google guys found something awesome …
January 24th, 2009 at 2:15 pm
The new google earth is pretty crazy. I am amazed at how they can do everything they do. Google the Atlantis News, it turned out they don’t think it’s real, but still cool!
February 24th, 2009 at 3:55 am
Hi!
Great thanks for this material. I`m a worker of the IT, and also of the tourism sphere (copywriter of ancient traditions), so this application do the good work for me =)
Thanks! I should wisit you blog more often)
March 18th, 2009 at 7:16 am
Wow.. I wish I have google Earth.. Btw, Nice article..
March 18th, 2009 at 12:07 pm
I missed this one. I got notification when Google added oceans and Mars. Thanks for sharing.
March 20th, 2009 at 9:12 pm
Good! I’m Italian and this is a very good post!
March 21st, 2009 at 9:03 am
Thanks for sharing about this new add to Google Earth. They also have Google Mars and Google Ocean.
March 31st, 2009 at 10:33 pm
WOW I feel like they invent the time machine, awsome! good for education purposes
April 1st, 2009 at 1:49 pm
Wow I love Google
) .. they might be taking over the world but with Google maps, Google earth, Street view, and now this.. they provide a great service. Being in web design and SEO, Google kind of rule my life.. but I have to say theyre great at what they do!
Nice post btw
)
April 2nd, 2009 at 5:07 pm
I’m Italian and it’s great!!!
April 19th, 2009 at 4:40 pm
This is pretty awesome, Google are thinking of everything these days, now they have the go-ahead for Google Street view – massive project for them in my opinion.
April 27th, 2009 at 11:36 am
but why did google went for rome there are so many intresting place other than rome
May 14th, 2009 at 4:29 am
That is a very helpful software. The new generation can easily visualize how Rome looks like hundred of years ago. Very interesting.
May 22nd, 2009 at 11:18 am
big g are awesome, no wonder they dominate the internet.
June 6th, 2009 at 10:31 pm
I just checked this out on my Google Earth – amazing!
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July 2nd, 2009 at 7:53 pm
I have just checked this on my google earth – amazing. Google is the best
)
July 2nd, 2009 at 7:53 pm
Cool. Must go and have a look.
July 19th, 2009 at 9:34 pm
A virtual time machine! This could have some really cool applications.
August 10th, 2009 at 3:25 pm
and it took them one day to make it in google earth
)
guess we cant use “rome wasn’t built in a day” any more
September 27th, 2009 at 3:37 am
It would be interesting to see this for other “phenomena” like the grand canyon, niagara falls, and the pyramids!
October 11th, 2009 at 9:58 am
Awesome innovation! how wonderful to know how technology could let us peek into our past history even just in pixel form.
January 23rd, 2010 at 12:55 pm
Cool . . I Will download Google Earth Quickly !
February 26th, 2010 at 4:55 am
That’s awesome! It seems like Google keeps improving their services everyday…
April 1st, 2010 at 4:27 pm
This is certainly cool, but would be better if Google updated its images more
April 6th, 2010 at 7:18 am
Its looks very kool, Google is always at the top when it comes to services.
April 6th, 2010 at 6:50 pm
My old job was in Rome, and It’s very nice to see places that I visited some year ago.
April 15th, 2010 at 7:48 am
Wow I just had a look and its really fantastic. This will definetly help in knowing the history of Rome. I would like to thanks google for adding this feature to google earth. I think now google earth will slowly reborn all other countries too…
April 28th, 2010 at 7:05 am
Yeah I seen it, they have all the location found in Rome. The place the streets and even the vendors around Rome. Love to see it again
May 25th, 2010 at 3:12 am
An armchair tour to past. Great way to discover the past.
May 26th, 2010 at 7:58 pm
Google Earth is making a real hit, beside this there is also a flight stimulator. It really a great thing from google
October 17th, 2010 at 6:05 am
Hi,
Virtual images of rome is really awesome………………and make appear as 3D is great!
November 16th, 2010 at 11:33 pm