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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35 Comments

  1. 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!

  2. 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)

  3. WOW I feel like they invent the time machine, awsome! good for education purposes 🙂

  4. 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 :))

  5. 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.

  6. That is a very helpful software. The new generation can easily visualize how Rome looks like hundred of years ago. Very interesting.

  7. 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 ;))

  8. It would be interesting to see this for other “phenomena” like the grand canyon, niagara falls, and the pyramids!

  9. 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…

  10. 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

  11. Google Earth is making a real hit, beside this there is also a flight stimulator. It really a great thing from google

  12. thanks for sharing and posting i really do agree with u with all the things that you said .
    they 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. ttt4,العاب شمس,hguf

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