Many among us, especially those with a literary bent of mind, have always been fascinated by famous historic and cultural sites from around the world. But the thought of exploring these sites has always been a distant dream. That dream came true?in a sense?when the Mountain View, California-based internet company Google used its Street View technology to take you on a virtual voyage of discovery to a large number of historic sites, including Stonehenge, Pompeii and the ancient Kyoto temples?something like taking a world tour on your laptop without leaving your home.
Now Google has done the same for Indian monuments. Last week, Google released the first 360-degree online imagery of 30 iconic Indian heritage sites, including the Taj Mahal, Humayun?s Tomb, Red Fort and Agra Fort, Jantar Mantar, Fatehpuri Sikri and Itimad-ud-Daula on Google Maps and the Google Cultural Institute.
The Indian monuments now live on Google Maps are all over 100 years old, and by allowing people to virtually explore them online, Google aims to help share more of Indian culture and heritage with people at home and abroad. For a layman, this means that people from India as well as overseas can explore the Taj Mahal and other national Indian monuments online through Street View. The Indian monuments can be viewed alongside the hundreds of tourist attractions around the world that have already been mapped. In addition to man-made sites, you can also explore natural places such as the sandy dunes of Australia?s Shark Bay or the rock domes of Yosemite National Park in California.
The Google initiative is a combination of Google Maps Street View, Google Earth 3D models, and some really great picture and data resources to create a really rich, educational global tour in a virtual environment. To gather pictures for this project, Google has relied on a combination of licensed, user submitted, and Google-gathered content. Specific to India, Google has used a Google trekker with a bag mounted camera who travels along the historical monuments and as he walks the camera captures the images with different angles. The content is educationally oriented, so this makes a great learning activity for kids as well as adults.
It may be recalled that last year, Google together with the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) had commenced a complete walk through of over 100 Indian monuments to usher a ?virtual tour? of the most visited monuments in the country, so as to make those sites more accessible for the world. From Google?s point of view, it is a part of its commitment to preserving culture online and making it accessible to everyone.
?Google is deeply committed to helping preserve and showcase cultural heritage across the world. India is unique in terms of the sheer wealth of heritage and iconic historical monuments, and it has been our privilege to work with the ASI in collecting new 360-degree photos of 30 Indian heritage sites. We hope the imagery will help make India?s heritage and culture more accessible to people at home and abroad,? said Rajan Anandan, vice-president and managing director, Google India.
?The images coming online through Google Maps and the Google Cultural Institute provide a new way for people around the world to view, interact with, and learn about some of the most important heritage monuments in India. We hope this new way of exploring national treasures such as the Taj Mahal, Agra Fort and Qutub Minar will help share more of India?s diverse culture with new audiences, and help preserve this part of India?s identity for generations to come,? said Pravin Srivastava, director general of the ASI.
This is the first step towards bringing more of India?s national monuments online, and Google and the ASI look forward to announcing when additional imagery of heritage sites will be available on Google Maps and the Google Cultural Institute.