We believe that through judicious use of current and emerging technologies, we can preserve our past not just in two dimensions but in full and accurate three dimensions, for the enjoyment, evaluation, and education of present and future generations.

- Bill Riseman & Donald H. Sanders, 1993

It Begins with the First Step

The Fortress at Buhen as modeled and rendered by Bill Riseman, with archaeological data and interpretation provided by Peter der Manuelian, Timothy Kendall, and Donald H. Sanders. ©1994 Bill Riseman  1999 Learning Sites, Inc.

Pushing the Technology

Buhen seemed a good site for testing the integration of advanced computer-graphics techniques, virtual reality, and the newly emerging information superhighway for a number of reasons:

• its excavated remains were extensive and well documented
• a virtual re-creation could at least partially rectify the loss of the actual remains, now submerged under Lake Nasser
• the site had a long and fascinating history that reflects much about cross-cultural economic and social interaction in its ancient era

In 1994, Riseman and Sanders exported  the data in the comprehensive model, as a test, into a computer system capable of immersive virtual reality. Through this experiment, they began to appreciate fully the capabilities of advanced computer graphics methods for re-creating ancient worlds. They envisioned mind-boggling possibilites for this new technology, such as allowing virtual travelers to access interactive visual or text databases, or to move to other, linked virtual sites, from within the base virtual world -- functions that are now taken for granted in virtual worlds produced by Learning Sites and VIZIN. During 1994 they began to formulate ways to create and disseminate such interactive materials, and they foresaw that the development of virtual worlds as teaching modules could dramatically change the way cultural information was used, taught, learned, and appreciate.