Home Technology Virtual reality revives Iraq’s war-ravaged heritage

Virtual reality revives Iraq’s war-ravaged heritage

4 min read

MOSUL, Aug 29(ABC): An Iraqi museum is using computer technology and virtual reality headsets to turn back time, so visitors can explore heritage sites destroyed by fighters and in battles to defeat them.

Islamic State group fighters captured a third of Iraq in a lightning offensive in 2014, seizing the northern city of Mosul as their stronghold and vandalising or destroying a swathe of cultural sites across the country.

Now, using thousands of photographs, a group of local engineers have given a virtual rebirth to five historic sites in Mosul and the broader Nineveh province, including a mosque and its leaning minaret.

“It takes you to another world,” said Mahiya Youssef, pulling the VR goggles off her rose-covered hijab at the Mosul Heritage House museum, after exploring the 3D images of damaged buildings.

“I really wish it was the real Mosul, not just a virtual version”, added Youssef, 50, who works in a food factory in the northern city. “The return to reality is painful.”

The IS group’s then chief, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, made his only confirmed public appearance at Mosul’s Al-Nuri mosque, where he declared the establishment of a “caliphate”.

Mosul’s Old City was reduced to rubble during the battle to retake the city, including the mosque and its adjacent leaning minaret, nicknamed Al-Hadba or the “hunchback”.

Iraqi authorities have accused IS of planting explosives at the site before their withdrawal. Only the minaret’s base survived.

Author

  • FD News

    Financial Daily (FD) is an emerging media outlet providing news reports, analysis and features especially related to politics and economy. FD is currently one of the largest and most comprehensive private-sector information portals in Pakistan, providing its readers with apolitical, unbiased and fact-based news reports and analyses.

Load More Related Articles
Load More By 
Load More In Technology

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Check Also

Commissioning of Central Control of New Gwadar Airport completed

GWADAR, Dec 20 (INP): The final testing and commissioning of the Central Control & Co…