Jan Bartek – AncientPages.com – Have you ever wanted to see what the famous, ancient Baalbek temples in Lebanon once looked like? Now you have the chance to do just that.
A magnificent virtual 3D tour of Heliopolis, as the site was called in antiquity is now available for free to anyone who wishes to travel back in time and experience a truly breath-taking sight, plunging users back into ancient history.
The application called Baalbek Reborn: Temples is the result of a collaboration between the Lebanese Directorate General of Antiquities (DGA), the German Archaeological Insтιтute (DAI) and Flyover Zone, a U.S.-based company specializing in virtual time travel to the ancient world.
The 3D virtual tour has not been developed to replace real-world tourism but raise awareness of this unique world heritage site and encourage more tourism to Lebanon in general.
“There’s just something very special about the place,” Henning Burwitz, a building historian and architect with the German Archaeological Insтιтute (DAI), told Al Jazeera.
Credit: Flyover Zone
“It’s scientifically an extremely interesting place, being one of the more eastern Roman cities and sanctuaries. It’s quite a statement to build something like this in such a remote part of the Roman Empire.”
Baalbek Reborn: Temples offers users an excellent opportunity to see today’s ruins in the archaeological park and travel back in time to the third century of our era to enjoy its ancient splendor digitally restored.
At each of the 39 stops you can hear explanations of what you are seeing offered by the German archaeologists who have been studying the site for over twenty years.
The audio track is available in Arabic, French, English, and German and the app runs on smartphones and tablets (Android, iOS), PCs and laptops (Macintosh, Windows 10) and VR headsets (Oculus Go, Oculus Quest, Oculus Rift, Oculus Rift-S, HTC Vive).
Credit: Flyover Zone
This magnificent virtual 3D tour shows us the splendid the Temple of Jupiter Heliopolitanus, the Temple of Bacchus, the Temple of Venus, and the Temple of the Muses.
You will be able to see awesome feats of ancient architecture and engineering, not only as they are today, but also as they would have been more than 2,000 years ago.
If you are interested and wanted to take this beautiful 3D virtual tour, you can download the software for free at Flyover Zone.
Written by Jan Bartek – AncientPages.com Staff Writer
