The tragic fire of Notre Dame Cathedral reminds us of the fragile impermanence of our World Heritage treasures. I am so grateful that people have captured the majesty of this site and others in photos and videos. It makes these places accessible by people from all around the world and even after catastrophes such as this.
Here is a Virtual Reality YouTube Video of Notre Dame. If you are watching this video on a computer (PC, Chromebook, Macbook, etc.) you can look around (360 degrees) by dragging the video with a mouse. If you are watching it on a mobile device make sure you are using the YouTube app and watching it in "full screen" mode. You can either turn your body to look around or you can use your finger to move the video. | |
Google Arts & Culture is digitally preserving world heritage sites and making their stories and the data they collected available to future generations of researchers, educators and students. This year, Historic Environment Scotland and the University of South Florida - organizations with a shared commitment to opening their 3D datasets to the world - have also joined the Open Heritage project. Together, they've launching Open Heritage 3D, a dedicated portal for sharing 3D cultural heritage data and its results with everyone. | Here's a Google Blog post with more information on the project. |
Google Expeditions is another great way to explore world heritage sites using virtual reality.