The ancient city Ephesus in the Central Aegean region, which reflects centuries-old history of Greece – Roman Empire and served as the Mediterranean’s main commercial center for the spread of Christianity, has been recreated in the virtual world by a professor and his students in the virtual world serving as tour guides.
Professor Ahmet Denker, a faculty member at the Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering at Bilgi University, decided to bring the ancient city of Ephesus to the virtual world.
Denker traveled to museums around the world, where the remains of the Temple of Artemis are exhibited, and collected information, initially recreating the temple in a three-dimensional online platform.
The professor’s project expanded to include Denker’s students: Selen Fem Güngördü, Ecem Suzan Ulaş and Deniz Naz Demirtaş, covering almost all the buildings of the city of Ephesus.
The three students appear in the virtual ancient city as tour guides.
Although the project has not yet been made public on the Internet, it has received great appreciation from several academics.
The professor and his students also virtually constructed the ancient city’s most important structures, such as the Library of Celsus, Arcadia Road, Gymnasium Harbor, Agora, Temple of Serapis, Temple of Hadrian, Arsinoe and Androclos monuments.
In the virtual city of Ephesus, which can be accessed with virtual reality (VR) glasses, users can walk around the streets and visit building interiors.
The city of Ephesus, which lived through its most glorious periods in the Hellenistic and Roman times, was destroyed by the Goths in 263. The city was then abandoned and turned into ruins.
The pieces of the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, considered one of the seven wonders of the world, were looted and taken to museums all around the world.
