Visit ancient Rome 2.0 in 3D

The project includes more than 6,700 buildings of Ancient Rome rebuilt in 3D.

Thanks to the Rome Reborn Project anyone can visit the Colosseum (virtually) and experience Rome as it was about 1,600 years ago under Emperor Constantine.

Rome Reborn is a project by the clever folk at the Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities at the University of Virginia. The purpose is well explained on their website:

Rome Reborn is an international initiative whose goal is the creation of 3D digital models illustrating the urban development of ancient Rome from the first settlement in the late Bronze Age (ca. 1000 B.C.) to the depopulation of the city in the early Middle Ages (ca. A.D. 550)

Visit ancient Rome version 2.0 on Google Earth

The model has been built on a Google Earth layer above the modern day version. It consists of 6,000 individual building and landmarks, many of which in high detail. You can also click on each monument to learn more about its history.

All this is available free but you have to download and install Google Earth on your PC. Here’s the link:

http://earth.google.com/rome/

Fly through the Colosseum

The Colosseum is a particularly good landmark to explore given its architecture and purpose. If you can’t make the Divus Vespasianus. Il bimillenario dei Flavi takes place, in part, in the Colosseum then a 3D fly-through is your second best option.

The video…

P.S. Don’t forget to visit Rome for real too!