BIBLE HISTORY DAILY

New App Provides On-Site Virtual Tour of Ruins

Ruins of once-magnificent cities are what typically remain at archaeological sites. Visitors must rely on site plans and tour guides to imagine what stood before them long ago—temples, fortifications and other monuments of the cities of past civilizations. Now, with a new mobile app, visitors will be able to hold their smartphones up to a specific part of a site and see a 3D reconstruction of what was once there.

Using augmented reality software and 3D modeling, Israeli startup Architip is developing a smartphone app that will enhance the visitor experience at historical and archaeological sites. The technology has been piloted at the site of Tel Lachish (pictured), where the Architip team mapped and “virtualized” the city famously besieged by the Assyrians during the reign of King Hezekiah of Judah. In the future, visitors to major archaeological sites will be able to use the Architip app to visualize the grandeur of many other ancient Biblical cities.
 

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BAS Library Members: Read more about the site of Lachish in “Why Lachish Matters” by Philip J. King as it appeared in the July/August 2005 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.

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Related content in Bible History Daily:

Archaeological Technology Study Page

Virtually Explore Bronze Age Cyprus: There’s an App for That
 

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