Google has given us a lot of cool things and now it's giving us the opportunity to virtually visit one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Google Street View is granting users the opportunity to visit the Great Pyramid of Giza and five other historic sites in Egypt from the comfort of their own WiFi-filled homes.
The 360-degree images of the Great Pyramids of Giza, the necropolis of Saqqara, the Citadel of Qaitbay, the Cairo Citadel, the Hanging Church and the ancient city of Abu Mena were unveiled on Google Street View on Tuesday.
Google Street View has covered more than 7.2 million miles across more than 59 countries since 2007, photographing iconic landmarks such as the Taj Mahal, the Grand Canyon and the Colosseum that are taken on 75-megapixel panoramic cameras that are attached to Street View Cars or "Trekkers." Google sent a team to collect images from the historic, ancient Egyptian sites last year using the "Trekker" technology that includes a camera at the top of a backpack.
"Absolutely we wanted the pyramids, the iconic Sphinx, and those were of our most top priority," says Deanna Yick, Google Street View program manager. "But we also wanted to capture some other locations around Cairo, and some other landmarks, in order to be able to give people a sense of what this place looks like collectively."
The Street View team carried the Trekker and its heavy rigs under the summer sun through the desert. The scenes were later seamlessly blended together into panoramas, blurring faces and license plates, a process that can take up to several months depending on the conditions and where the images were captured.
"It was a unique experience for us as well, because the equipment really got tested in the heat," Google Maps Street View program manager Amita Khattri says.
The panoramic images grant Google Street View users the ability to virtually walk around the city. Users can explore the oldest monumental statue in the word, the Great Sphinx and other sites that they may never get to visit in person.
"On a global scale, there are few places that really capture peoples' imagination. For us, this is extremely exciting because it's one of those few places that we think that everyone is curious about," Yick says. "We've created a record of ancient construction that can be of interest to not just explorers, but scientists and archaeologists."
The images provide educators an innovative way to present learning materials. Scientists and archaeologists will also be able to use the images as a reference to how the sites change over time.
The images allow tourists to safely continue to visit the sites despite heated tensions since Egypt's 2011 uprising. While only 9.5 million tourists checked in to Egyptian hotels in 2013, perhaps the images will spark interest to see the sites in person.
