Rome's monuments may be crowded with tourists, crippled by time and damaged by pollution, but the glory days of this ancient imperial city are alive and well — inside a computer.
Experts from around the world on Monday unveiled what they called the largest and most complete simulation of a historic city, which digitally recreates Rome as it appeared at the peak of its power.
When in virtual Rome, visitors will be able to do even more than ancient Romans did: They can crawl through the bowels of the Colosseum, filled with lion cages and primitive elevators, and fly up for a detailed look at bas-reliefs and inscriptions placed atop triumphal arches.
The simulation shows Rome in A.D. 320, at the time the emperor Constantine, and reconstructs some 7,000 buildings of a vibrant and cosmopolitan city of about 1 million people, said Bernard Frischer of the University of Virginia, who led the project.
Thanks to laser scans of Rome today and advice from archaeologists, experts have rebuilt almost the entire city within its 13-mile-long (21-kilometer-long) wall using the same computer programs architects use to plan new constructions, said Frischer, who heads Virginia's Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities.
The US$2 million (€1.5 million) "Rome Reborn" simulation was created over 10 years by an international team of archaeologists, architects and computer specialists from the University of Virginia and the Los Angeles branch of the University of California, as well research institutes in Italy, Germany and Britain, he said.
The simulation will be useful for scientists to run experiments — for example to determine the crowd capacity of the ancient buildings — and as a new kind of scholarly journal that will be updated each time a new discovery is made on one of Rome's ancient marvels.
It also is of value for students and tourists visiting Rome, Frischer said at a presentation of the work in Rome's city hall.
Link & Image: International Herald Tribune
Tags: Ancient | Rome | Virtual Reality
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