‘Museum without walls’ displays Egypt's glories. From the Globe and Mail:
Experiencing the glories of Egypt, both ancient and modern, will become a lot easier starting today thanks to a groundbreaking joint effort of the Egyptian government and a Toronto-based team of Web designers.
The result of their three-year collaboration is a new website known as "Eternal Egypt," paid for by a $2.5-million (U.S.) donation from the IBM corporation.
"This project will enable us to treat the entire country of Egypt as a single museum that can be toured by individual visitors or a global audience," is how Farouk Hosni, Egypt's Minister of Culture, describes the endeavour that is being officially launched from Cairo today.
By going to the website -- http://www.eternalegypt.org -- a person sitting at a computer will be able to do such things as visit the Temple of Luxor or watch how the seated statue of Ramses II has changed over historical periods (once it was sheltered at the front of a temple, now it sits naked to the elements).
Tutankhamen's death mask is seen in such fine detail that holes made by decay or by the creation of the mask itself are visible. Structures that have disappeared, like the Lighthouse of Alexandria, destroyed in a 14th-century earthquake, are not just digitally recreated but can be viewed at different angles from all around the city's ancient harbour. [continue]
Wow! Eternal Egypt is a lovely site.
(N.B: The site uses background music on main page; Flash and Shockwave are used throughout.)
Posted on February 24, 2004 10:31 AM. Filed under: history & archaeology.