Visiting ancient ruins is a great way to get a glimpse of human life from centuries ago. We can get an idea of how people lived from the buildings they left behind, but time has taken its toll on them, so we still need to use a great deal of imagination to picture what the ruins had really looked like. Until now. Expedia has taken some of the world’s most iconic ancient ruins and used digital magic to recreate them as they would have looked in their prime. So let’s take a journey back in time…
The Parthenon
A symbol of Ancient Greece that was built in 438 BC and still endures to this day, the Parthenon sits proudly on a hill at the Acropolis, despite being badly damaged in a war back in 1687. When it was originally built, it was to house a statue of Athena and many of its statues now reside in the British Museum, but can you imagine what it must have looked like before that explosion in the 17th Century? With the help of this digital restoration, now you can…
Nohoch Mul Pyramid (Coba)
The Mayans left us with some incredible structures, but wouldn’t it be something to see them as they were originally built, rather than the ruins that we have left? The Nohoch Mul Pyramid is part of the ancient city of Coba and is one of the tallest Mayan pyramids in the world. Today it still looks like a hugely impressive structure, but look at what the Mayans would have seen.
Temple of Jupiter
There can’t be many ancient cities that have captured the imagination quite so much as Pompeii, because of the nature of its destruction and the way so much of life there was preserved by the eruption. The Temple Of Jupiter was largely destroyed and while it has been excavated and opened to the public, very little of what would have been there is still visible, so here’s what you’re missing.
Hadrian’s Wall
The wall built by Roman Emperor Hadrian in northern England in AD 122 is still visible today in most places along its route, but it’s hard to see how it could ever have been used to protect the Empire from its enemies. But with a little help from these digital graphics you can see the wall at its full height, along with one of the milecastles that helped fortify the wall.
Luxor Temple
If you want to see the Luxor today, you could go to Vegas, but that’s not really the point is it? The real Luxor Temple has been around since 1380 BC, with its famous pylon gateway having been added a hundred years later. It doesn’t look as grand as it once would have done, back when it was guarded by sphinxes, but you can get the full picture below.
The Pyramid of the Sun – Teotihuacán
Part of the magic of ancient ruins is the mystery of what might have been, and they don’t come much more mysterious than Teotihuacán as we know so little about the civilisation that built it as they seemed to just vanish. Luckily, with the help of this reconstruction, we can at least see what an incredible achievement their pyramid really was.
Area Sacra di Largo Argentina – Temple B
Nowadays, this Roman ruin is the home to hundreds of cats and not a lot remains of the temples that once stood there. They were uncovered by building work in the 1920s, but no-one has been able to see one of the temples standing in its glory for centuries. Until now. Hopefully the cats still like it as much.
Love this article? Read more stories like this on our The Happy Nomad Blog!