Sao Paulo
Architecture enthusiasts and history lovers can explore the structure of ancient Rome without leaving home: a new interactive 3D reconstruction of the city is available on the website of Flyover Zone, an educational technology company. There are 12 temporal distortions that allow you to switch between views of the current city and corresponding views in the 4th century.
The reconstruction allows viewers to transport themselves from a distance to the heyday of the Roman Empire in 320 AD, just before the capital was moved to Constantinople. Rome Reborn: Flight over Ancient Rome offers an immersive user experience visiting the streets and famous monuments of the time, such as the Colosseum, the Roman Forum and the Pantheon, when the city was one of the most populous on the European continent, housing many houses around 7,000 buildings are spread over 13.6 square kilometers.
The initiative of professor and archaeologist Bernard Frischer is the result of more than 27 years of international collaboration and brings together digital tools to research local history and culture. In 1974, during his fellowship, he visited the Museum of Roman Civilization and found a physical model representation of ancient Rome. He later worked on creating a computerized version.
As archaeological discoveries and other insights into daily life for 4thcentury Romans come to light, the Flyover Zone team is modifying “Rome Reborn” to provide a more comprehensive look at the city. Version 4.0, the latest update, is from November 2023 and receives a higher level of realism, with new urban databases and recreations of monuments not present in previous versions: Baths of Caracalla, Temples on the Capitol and structures in the Theater District, such as the Stadium of Domitian (today Piazza Navona) and the theaters of Balbus, Marcellus and Pompey the Great.
The public can discover the secrets of one of the most influential civilizations in history and learn more details about its cultural legacy to humanity. In 39 stations, Bernard Fischer presents explanations of Rome’s geography, economy, housing, urban infrastructure and spatial organization as well as health care, leisure facilities and religious institutions.
Flyover Zone also offers 13 other virtual tours on the Yorescape.com platform free for the first seven days including the Acropolis in Greece and the tomb of Pharaoh Ramses 6 in Egypt with advanced computer graphics.