Age Old Cities: A Virtual Journey from Palmyra to Mosul through October 25, 2020 at the Freer/Sackler Galleries of Art in Washington D.C.

Age Old Cities: A Virtual Journey from Palmyra to Mosul through October 25, 2020 at the Freer/Sackler Galleries of Art in Washington D.C.
Ancient cultural sites in Palmyra, Aleppo and Mosul have been recreated virtually by the video game company Ubisoft, the company that recreated ancient Egypt and Greece in their Assassin's Creed game franchise. The recreations of such structures as The Temple of Baalshamin in Palmyra, the Great Mosque of Al-Nuri, the souks of Aleppo, and the mausoleum of Nabi Yunnus can be experienced by visitors through multimedia displays and virtual reality devices. Visitors can watch interviews of those who witnessed the destruction of their cities and see first-hand the damage done to these UNESCO world heritage sites. A large map pinpoints exactly where the three featured cities are located then large-scale depictions of the destruction slowly morph into the full historic sites that once existed there. Ubisoft created the reconstructions by flying drones over the sites to capture thousands of pictures. It is hoped measurements gained from the images can also serve as blueprints to help in the physical rebuilding of the sites.



Images: The remains of the Temple of Baalshamin and the virtual reconstruction created by Ubisoft courtesy of Mikhail Voskresenskiy of the Associated Press and Mel Madarang of ABC News.

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