Africa Travel WeekThe Giza Project began in 2000 at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, with the goal of digitising all the archaeological documentation from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston – Harvard University expedition to Giza, Egypt (circa. 1904-1947) and making that information freely available online for anyone to use.
Since moving to Harvard in 2011, the Project has expanded its scope, partnering with other institutions around the world that excavated at Giza, to bring together as much data as possible about this complex site. The process of integrating and standardizing all these records is ongoing.
In addition, the Project has utilised this vast quantity of information to begin building a 3D virtual reconstruction of the Giza Plateau as it may have looked when first built, providing new ways to sightsee, explore, and learn about the pyramids and their surrounding cemeteries. To date, the Project has modelled approximately 20 tombs and monuments in detail, with many hundreds more still to be done.
With support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Project is currently developing Digital Giza, a website which seeks to integrate this virtual environment with more than a hundred years of scholarly research about Giza, using cutting edge technology to study the distant past and preserve knowledge about this important cultural heritage site for the future.
The Project continues to explore and develop new interactive ways to experience ancient Giza, including virtual and augmented reality apps, 3D printing of ancient artefacts, and online teaching initiatives.
For more information: http://giza.fas.harvard.edu/
