Ancient Egypt Comes Alive Online

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Ancient Egypt Comes Alive

In New Online Guide

Independent Online - South Africa

2-25-4

 

www.eternalegypt.org

CAIRO (Sapa-dpa) -- Lovers of archaeology - be it Pharaonic, Roman,

Greek, Coptic or Islamic - can now log on to a new website to access

more than 5 000 years of history.

 

Project organisers on Tuesday launched the website, Eternal Egypt,

against the backdrop of the Pyramids of the Giza plateau and the

Sphinx.

 

Work on the project began three years ago in a partnership between

the Egyptian Centre for Documentation of Cultural and Natural

Heritage (CultNat) and US technology manufacturer IBM.

 

"IBM funded the project and the Egyptian government contributed a

team of experts to develop the website," said IBM project manager

John Tolva.

 

People logging onto the website will view multimedia animations, 360-

degree image sequences, panoramas of important archeological

locations and three-dimensional scans and thousands of high

resolution images, according to a press release issued for the

launching.

 

"There are also five cameras set up from which people can get into

and see live footage of the Giza pyramids, Qait Bey in Alexandria,

the Mohammed Ali Citadel in Cairo, the Abu Simbel and Karnak temples

in Upper Egypt," said Sabri Abdel Aziz, an official at Egypt's

Supreme Council for Antiquities.

 

The website also includes a virtual reconstruction of Tutankhamun's

tomb as it looked the day English archeologist Howard Carter

discovered it in 1922.

 

"Viewers can even examine the face of the Sphinx as it looked 2 000

years ago," according to the press release.

 

CultNat director Fathi Saleh described the website as "the most

comprehensive site on Egyptian heritage", adding that the project

was realised "in a formidable effort by 150 Egyptian archaeology and

technology experts".

 

"All combined, the new technology has made it possible to see Egypt

in ways we never imagined, to see our country as it was thousands of

years ago," Saleh said.

 

In addition to outdoor archeological sites, the website includes all

artifacts within prominent museums in Egypt - all in high resolution

images that can be seen from the comfort of one's desk.

 

"This join venture between IBM and the Egyptian government is an

unprecedented experience," said Amr Tawfik, general manager of IBM,

Egypt. "This is a project that opens the grandeur of Egypt to the

world."

 

Check out the website, www.eternalegypt.org, for more details.

 

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