Cultural and natural sites listed in World Heritage will be accessible to people around the world in internet now. I read about this new alliance today. Unesco and Google make an alliance to provide virtual visits to these sites. Internet users can visit 19 sites via "Google Street View" interface. All the other sites on the list will be shown on the "Google Earth" and "Google Maps" interfaces. Street view provides panoramic views taken by cameras, so these views can increase awareness about these sites.
This project starts with a short list including Old town of Caceres, Historic city of Toledo, Banks of Seine, Archeological Areas of pompei, Historic centre of Siena, Historic centre of San Gimignano, Historic centre of Prague and some others located in Spain, France, Italy, Netherlands, Czech Republic, United Kingdom. The focus is on harder-to-access sites. They can be appreciated by millions of people who might never have the opportunity to visit them. These sites are located in South Africa, Brazil, Canada, Mexico and Netherlands.
This project can be useful for people who have not any opportunity to visit some sites. For example, Brazil, Canada or Australia are inaccessible for me, so I can have a chance to visit sites located in these countries via this project. But I think, if someone has a change and opportunity to visit and see these sites in real world, it is better. Because it is meaningful, when you go and live real life in these sites and experience the natural and cultural heritage.
I searched lots of Unesco sites in internet before, to make a research about my study, you can learn lots of things about these sites but you can not interiorise the importance or unique character of these sites. I understood that when I made a visit to some of these sites (Toledo, Brugge, etc.). It was different than I read. Every source was telling about mediaval character and old narrow streets of Toledo. I learned about it from documents, but I thought that there is a place like a museum conserved by Unesco. When I went there and while I was strolling and walking in the city, I felt these mediaval city. I lived and experienced the city and it gives you the unique character of them. This is my opinion, but as I said before this project provides an alternative on the other hand.
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