Tour African Monuments Online

Cherita Chen writes "Heinz Ruther, professor of Geomatics at the University of Cape Town, looks to provide a "Virtual tour of Africa's heritage". http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4507454.st m "Africans will soon be able to take an online tour of the continent's major world heritage sites like Great Zimbabwe, the rock-hewn St Giyorgis church at Lalibella in Ethiopia and the great mosque of Djenne in Mali.""

Comments

Geomatics?

[rossdee]

Main Entry: geomatics
Part of Speech: noun
Definition: a science concerned with using mathematical methods on data about the earth's surface
Usage: science

Re:why go there at all if you can watch it on TV?

[frenetic_wimp]

Sadly, the pyramids are not all that impressive up close either. Granted, the structures themselves are prett awe-inspiring, but the surrounding area killed a lot of the experience for me. I didn't mind the state of the residential areas around Giza, as they are representative of average housing in Cairo, but the amount of debris and junk in the undeveloped desert immediately surrounding the pyramids themselves is quite disgusting. I saw several rotting carcasses of horses and donkeys among plastic wrappers, bags of household garbage, and construction debris. As one of the world's most important and interesting heritage sites, the lack of interest the Egyptian government shows in keeping it clean and inviting for visitors is just one stop short of apalling. So I'm pretty sure that although a 19-incher might be a bit underwhelming, a seriously sized projection of a 3D flythrough could be every bit as fascinating an experience, seen as a whole, as actually visiting.