Virtual Karnak

For the past two years, a team of UCLA Egyptologists, digital modelers, web designers, staff and students has been building a three-dimensional virtual-reality model of the ancient Egyptian religious site known as Karnak, one of the largest temple complexes ever constructed. The result is Digital Karnak, a high-tech model that runs in real time and allows users to navigate 2,000 years of history at the popular ancient Egyptian tourist site near modern-day Luxor, where generations of pharaohs constructed temples, chapels, obelisks, sphinxes, shrines and other sacred structures beginning in the 20th century B.C. Developed by UCLA's Experiential Technologies Center the Karnak model and a host of additional digital resources are now available for educators, students, scholars and the public to explore for free. The website features videos from the 3D model, instructional resources for educators, a Google Earth version of the model and pages detailing the chronology and construction of individual structures at the temple complex.

The collective resources offer a window onto the incredibly rich architectural, religious, economic, social and political history of ancient Egypt. In recent years, scientists, historians and archaeologists around the world have embraced the 3D modeling of cultural heritage sites. Information technology has permitted them to recreate buildings and monuments that no longer exist or to digitally restore sites that have been damaged by the passage of time. The results can be used both in research, to test new theories, and in teaching, to take students on virtual tours of historical sites they are studying. The Experiential Technologies Center (ETC) at UCLA, which promotes the critical incorporation of new technologies into research and teaching, has been a leader in this cutting-edge movement, having digitally reconstructed a wide variety of sites of historical and cultural importance in Europe, the Middle East, South America and the Caribbean.

More information:

http://dlib.etc.ucla.edu/projects/Karnak

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090429172224.htm