U.S. Museum to Host Augmented Reality Exhibition of the Sphinx

The Harvard Semitic Museum in Massachusetts, U.S will soon be granting its visitors the chance to experience Giza’s Great Sphinx in 360 degrees through an augmented reality app, Egyptian Streets reports.

Peter Der Manuelian, Egyptology professor and project leader, has tested the app on his students and gotten positive feedback of the personalised experience. While it’s not yet in complete form to be released, the professor defines the success of this project as the future of virtual and historical tourism.

Along with a virtual journey throughout the Sphinx's history - which will highlight when the monument was first built - the physical reproduction of Thutmose IV’s Dream Stele will also be represented in 360 degrees through the app. Visitors will be required to point their phone cameras at the Stele and outline the artefact for the simulation experience. 

Fellow Egyptology teacher, Lauren M. Santini says that the steel - which stands between the Sphinx's legs - recounts the Sphinx appearing to Thutmose IV in a dream and promising him that if he uncovered the Sphinx from sand, he would become pharaoh.

As one of the oldest monuments in Egypt, the Sphinx is around 73 meters long and is believed to represent the face of the Pharoh Khafre.

Main image from adventure.howstuffworks.com