A replica of Palmyra's Triumphal Arch, a 2,000-year-old monument destroyed by Islamic State in Syria, has been erected in London’s Trafalgar Square thanks to 3D imaging technology.
The statue was unveiled yesterday by London Mayor Boris Johnson and will travel to New York and Dubai after leaving London.
The reconstruction is part of a project led by the Institute for Digital Archaeology called the Million Image Database, which aims to capture one million 3D images of heritage sites at risk from destruction in the Middle East. Around 5,000 low-cost 3D cameras have been deployed to museum affiliates, NGO employees and military personnel to document these sites.
The two-thirds scale model of the Triumphal Arch was created from 3D imaging data of the site in Palmyra, Syria. A robot arm working to the 3D imaging data carved the structure into marble blocks.
The ancient city of Palmyra is a Unesco World Heritage site, containing more than 1,000 columns, a Roman aqueduct and a necropolis of 500 tombs. The city was taken by IS militants in May last year, and then recaptured at the end of March this year.
Further information:
