Google Creates Digital Exhibition for Endangered Heritage Sites
Our heritage sites are endangered. Climate change has put many of these iconic, age-old attractions at massive risk, with the potential of being completely destroyed if we don’t act now. In a bid to spread awareness on this pressing concern, Google has launched a digital exhibition to help save these endangered heritage sites.
The Heritage of the Edge is a collection that features more than 50 online exhibits, 3D models, street view tours and interviews about historical places at risk of climate change. The selected areas have been chosen based on their national, spiritual or cultural significance.
Collaborating with CyArk – a nonprofit digital archivist of heritage sites – and International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), the online exhibition takes users to endangered heritage sites like Chile’s remote Easter Island, Bangladesh’s Bagerhat, an ancient city of mosques and Scotland’s iconic Edinburgh Castle.
Each of these heritage sites are at risk of different climate changes. The Rapa Nui is at the mercy of rising sea levels, as unlike many islands on the South Pacific, Chile’s icon has no reef to protect its coast. Additionally, its mineral-poor soil easily runs off into the ocean during heavy rainfall.
Similarly, Tanzania’s Kilwa Kisiwani is at danger of coastal erosion. The former seat of Sultans on the Swahili Coast was placed on the UNESCO’s World Heritage in Danger List in 2014. Other effects of climate change puts Peru’s historic mud brick, desert metropolis at risk. Chan Chan was the largest adobe brick city in the world, when it was at its peak in 1400 AD.
To complement these exhibits, Google provides solutions, outlining what can be done to combat the crisis and conserve these endangered heritage sites. The Heritage of the Edge experience is now available for exploration.
Source: AFP Relax News
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