Palmyra rises again in 3D show

Rio gets UNESCO world heritage status

PARIS, Dec 14, (Agencies): Palmyra may just have fallen yet again to the Islamic State group, but a new “immersive” 3D show in Paris lets you walk through the Syrian city’s classical colonnades as they were before the jihadists blew them to bits.

The “Eternal Sites” exhibition uses high-definition images often shot by drones to allow the public to visit four of the most threatened heritage sites in the world in war-torn Syria and Iraq.

The eighth-century Umayyad Mosque in Damascus — regarded by many as the fourth holiest place in Islam — and the Krak des Chevaliers Crusader castle near the ravaged city of Homs have also been virtually recreated under the dome of the Grand Palais in Paris.

The show, which has been organised with the nearby Louvre museum, is part of a global push to digitalise spectacular archaeological sites that are at risk.

The remains of the ancient Iraqi city of Khorsabad, which dates from the 7th century BC, has also been recreated using images captured by French company Iconem.

Like the other three sites, the 3D images are matched with real artefacts from the city from the Louvre’s collections. The museum’s director Jean-Luc Martinez, who curated the show, said that they wanted to “show sites that are no longer accessible and the beauty of their art.”

Palmyra fell for a second time to the jihadists at the weekend despite heavy Russian bombing to prevent the extremists

million times since its launch in July, according to the study published in the journal BMJ. The study did not comment on the reasons for the relapse.

“We are only at the beginning of understanding how augmented reality gaming entering the city.

Islamic State fighters ravaged the Roman-era ruins during the 10 months it held the ancient oasis city from May 2015 to March 2016, systematically blowing up temples and columns in attacks that provoked worldwide outrage.

Photogrammetric technology developed by Iconem has also been used to record the Roman theatre in the Syrian coastal city of Jableh and the Phoenician site in the ancient port of Ugarit, where evidence of the world’s oldest alphabet was found.

Major

Its technicians have also been working alongside 15 specialists from the Syrian Directorate General of Antiquities and Museums (DGAM) to digitalise some of the country’s major museum collections.

Hundreds of important heritage sites have been sacked or destroyed during the five-year conflict, with the destruction of the first-century temples of Bel and Baalshamin in Palmyra making most headlines. IS has made a point of razing ancient shrines and statues it considers as idolatry and is also suspected of involvement in the illegal sale of antiquities.

Work on the “Syrian Heritage” database, the biggest 3D record of the country’s monuments and treasures, began last December and includes a large number of Ottoman-era buildings in Damascus as well as its 11th-century citadel, which looms over the city.

can potentially be beneficial to health,” said Katherine Howe, who co-authored the study.

“They give people a reason to go outside, walk, and socialise. Imagine the potential of developing these games to not only increase

The head of DGAM, Maamoun Abdulkarim, said the operation was essential to “avoid an irreplaceable loss to humanity” given “the dramatic situation in our country”.

The drive, carried out with the help of the French grande ecole ENS and the research institute INRIA, is one of a number trying to catalogue sites in danger of falling into the line of fire.

The Institute for Digital Archaeology, created by Oxford and Harvard universities and Dubai’s Museum of the Future, is also compiling a record of many vulnerable sites in Syria and neighbouring Iraq.

It has handed out 5,000 low-cost 3D cameras to archaeologists and NGOs with the hope of gathering a million images of threatened sites.

Also: RIO DE JANEIRO:

Rio de Janeiro, nicknamed the Marvelous City, officially entered the UN’s list of world heritage sites Tuesday in recognition of its soaring granite cliffs, urban rainforest and beaches.

The UN cultural body, UNESCO, highlighted the “extraordinary fusion” of man-made and natural beauty in certifying Rio on the world heritage list during a ceremony held at the Christ the Redeemer statue.

That blend has “created an urban landscape perceived to be of great beauty by many writers and travelers and one that has shaped the culture of the city,” the UN said.

physical activity but to also boost mental well-being, mood, cognitive abilities and social interaction,” she added. (AFP)

NASA troubleshooting problem:

NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity has halted its trek up a mountain filled with potentially habitable niches for life while engineers troubleshoot a problem with one of its key instruments, scientists said on Tuesday.

Curiosity landed on Mars four years ago to determine if the planet most like Earth in the solar system ever had the ingredients for life. To answer the question, Curiosity has been drilling into rocks and chemically analyzing the samples.

Drilling operations have been suspended however due to a suspected problem with the instrument’s motor, project scientist with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory Ashwin Vasavada told reporters at the American Geophysical Union conference in San Francisco. The problem first appeared about a week ago, Vasavada said. Project engineers thought they had resolved it, but the problems cropped back up, he said.

“If we can’t move the drill bit down, there’s no drilling,” Vasavada said. “There isn’t any way to sugar-coat that one.”

The problem comes as scientists are beginning to glimpse a history of Mars replete with life-friendly, water-rich environments and intriguing chemistry, including the first detection of the element boron. (RTRS)