The heritage of the Arab world – Palmyra, Aleppo, Mossul and Leptis Magna – come back to life thanks to the exhibition Age-old cities at the Arab World Institute (near our hotels), using the latest digital technology and virtual reality.

Numerous important Arab heritage sites have been devastated by war or left to crumble through negligence. For their latest exhibition, the Arab World Institute uses the latest technology to ressucitate them, digitally.

With images supplied by French company Iconem and support from UNESCO, four large sites have been reproduced with computer graphics, allowing you to fly over the sites before donning a VR helmet and ‘walking’ through the streets, using technology developed by Ubisoft.

For example, for Mossul, the al-Nouri mosque – now little more than a pile of rubble – open its doors to you, recreated virtually in its original form. In other rooms of the exhibition, big screens present the actual state of a site before going back in time to show the buildings as they originally were.

The aim of the exhibition is to make visitors realise the threat that our world’s heritage is under, and also reflect on the folly of man.

Linked with the exhibition are the usual guided tours and workshops, but also an adult writing workshop every Thursday, and a talk in French called Patrimoines en péril on 11th October with Jean-Luc Martinez, the president-manager of the Louvre.

A catalogue of the exhibition is also available (120 pages, 20€ here at amazon.fr).

The exhibition Age-old cities – A virtual journey from Palmyra To Mosul is at the Arab World Institute (here) until 10th February 2019

Open every day except Mondays from 10am-6pm (7pm weekends and public holidays)

Admission: 12€ / 10€

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