Living in the past: a digital reconstruction provides valuable insight to Jerusalem's archaeological treasures. (simulation).

Jerusalem is rich with archaeological sites that hold valuable historical evidence of the way people lived and the customs they observed many years ago. But even though a great deal of the city's ruins have been excavated, it still can be difficult to visualize the way Jerusalem looked 2000 years ago, for example. Recognizing this, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) is using real-time 3D simulation technology to help visitors to the new Ethan and Marla Davidson Exhibition and Virtual Reconstruction Center visualize what Jerusalem's famed Herodian Temple Mount looked like prior to its destruction by Roman troops during the first century.

"The visualization is based totally on archaeological evidence and accurate historical information," says Jacob Fisch, the IAA's director of external affairs.

The Davidson Center, which is located at the entrance to the Jerusalem Archaeological Park, is an underground complex that includes rooms containing maps, drawings, and physical models of various antiquities. It also features a real-time interactive 3D simulation of the Herodian Temple Mount site--created jointly by the IAA and the Urban Simulation Team at UCLA--that takes visitors on a free-roaming walk through the model, as though they're exploring the Jerusalem of long ago.

The simulation is shown on a large screen within a theater environment. Movement through the model is controlled by an archaeologist guide, who manipulates the direction of the walkthrough in real time, based on the audience's questions and interests. Enabling this capability is the Urban Simulation Team's uSim real-time software, which runs on an SGI Onyx2 InfiniteReality3 workstation.

To generate the model's terrain, primary modeler Lisa Snyder, a senior member of the UCLA team and a Ph.D. candidate, digitized a topographical map of ancient Jerusalem. She then imported the data into ...