Thursday, March 30, 2023
manilastandard.net
ADVERTISEMENT
  • About
  • News
    • Top Stories
    • National
    • World News
    • Pinoy Abroad
    • Features
  • Opinion
    • Editorial
    • Columns
    • Soundbytes
  • LGUs
    • NCR
    • Luzon
    • Visayas
    • Mindanao
  • Business
    • Corporate
    • Economy & Trade
    • Stocks
    • Money
    • Agri & Mining
    • Power & Tech
    • IT & Telecom
  • Sports
    • Basketball
    • Volleyball
    • Fightsports
    • Active
    • Sports Plus
    • One Championship
    • Columns
  • Entertainment
    • TV & Movies
    • Celebrity Profiles
    • Music & Concerts
    • Digital Media
    • Columns
  • Lifestyle
    • Food
    • Culture & Media
    • Fashion
    • Health and Home
    • Leisure
    • Shopping
    • Columns
  • Others
    • Pets
    • Pop.Life
      • Newsmakers
      • Hangouts
      • A-Pop
      • Post Its
      • Performances
      • Malls & Bazaars
      • Hobbies & Collections
    • Technology
      • Gadgets
      • Computers
      • Business
      • Tech Plus
    • MS ON THE ROAD
      • Sedan
      • SUV
      • Truck
      • Bike
      • Accessories
      • Motoring Plus
      • Commuter’s Corner
    • Home & Design
      • Residential
      • Commercial
      • Construction
      • Interior
    • Spotlight
    • Gallery
      • Photos
      • Videos
    • Events
      • Seminars
      • Exhibits
      • Community
    • Biyahero
      • Travel Features
      • Travel Reels
      • Travel Logs
  • Advertise with Us
No Result
View All Result
  • About
  • News
    • Top Stories
    • National
    • World News
    • Pinoy Abroad
    • Features
  • Opinion
    • Editorial
    • Columns
    • Soundbytes
  • LGUs
    • NCR
    • Luzon
    • Visayas
    • Mindanao
  • Business
    • Corporate
    • Economy & Trade
    • Stocks
    • Money
    • Agri & Mining
    • Power & Tech
    • IT & Telecom
  • Sports
    • Basketball
    • Volleyball
    • Fightsports
    • Active
    • Sports Plus
    • One Championship
    • Columns
  • Entertainment
    • TV & Movies
    • Celebrity Profiles
    • Music & Concerts
    • Digital Media
    • Columns
  • Lifestyle
    • Food
    • Culture & Media
    • Fashion
    • Health and Home
    • Leisure
    • Shopping
    • Columns
  • Others
    • Pets
    • Pop.Life
      • Newsmakers
      • Hangouts
      • A-Pop
      • Post Its
      • Performances
      • Malls & Bazaars
      • Hobbies & Collections
    • Technology
      • Gadgets
      • Computers
      • Business
      • Tech Plus
    • MS ON THE ROAD
      • Sedan
      • SUV
      • Truck
      • Bike
      • Accessories
      • Motoring Plus
      • Commuter’s Corner
    • Home & Design
      • Residential
      • Commercial
      • Construction
      • Interior
    • Spotlight
    • Gallery
      • Photos
      • Videos
    • Events
      • Seminars
      • Exhibits
      • Community
    • Biyahero
      • Travel Features
      • Travel Reels
      • Travel Logs
  • Advertise with Us
No Result
View All Result
manilastandard.net
No Result
View All Result
Home News

Virtual reality revives Iraq’s war-ravaged heritage

AFPbyAFP
August 29, 2022, 10:30 am
in News, World News
Reading Time: 4 mins read
A A
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on Email

By Mohammad Salim

An Iraqi museum is using computer technology and virtual reality headsets to turn back time, so visitors can explore heritage sites destroyed by jihadist fighters and in battles to defeat them.

Islamic State group fighters captured a third of Iraq in a lightning offensive in 2014, seizing the northern city of Mosul as their stronghold and vandalising or destroying a swathe of cultural sites across the country.

Now, using thousands of photographs, a group of local engineers have given a virtual rebirth to five historic sites in Mosul and the broader Nineveh province, including a mosque and its leaning minaret.

“It takes you to another world,” said Mahiya Youssef, pulling the VR goggles off her rose-covered hijab at the Mosul Heritage House museum, after exploring the 3D images of damaged buildings.

ADVERTISEMENT

“I really wish it was the real Mosul, not just a virtual version”, added Youssef, 50, who works in a food factory in the northern city. “The return to reality is painful.”

The IS group’s then chief, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, made his only confirmed public appearance at Mosul’s Al-Nuri mosque, where he declared the establishment of a “caliphate”.

Mosul’s Old City was reduced to rubble during the battle to retake the city, including the mosque and its adjacent leaning minaret, nicknamed Al-Hadba or the “hunchback”.

Iraqi authorities have accused IS of planting explosives at the site before their withdrawal. Only the minaret’s base survived.

‘Retrieve memories’

VR technology has been used before to recreate the heritage destroyed by the IS group, including a UNESCO-backed exhibit in the United States.

But this museum brings sites back to life for the people who live in Mosul.

“Many children have never seen the Al-Nuri mosque and its Al-Hadba minaret,” 29-year-old Ayoub Younes, the museum’s founder.

“We try, through virtual reality, to let the person experience visiting those sites and retrieve those memories.”

Five years after Iraqi forces and an international coalition routed the jihadists in mid-2017, historic sites, mosques and churches in Mosul are still being restored.

But large parts of the Old City remain oceans of debris.

While some residents have returned to other districts, much of the city remains a patchwork of buildings either ruined or under construction. 

The private museum with a marble facade, sitting along the Tigris river, opened in mid-June and saw more than 4,000 visitors in its first month, Younes said. 

In a sombre room, curious visitors wait to use the museum’s sole VR headset, a pair of large black googles.

Other sites on the virtual visit are the historic Al-Tahera church, tucked among the once meandering alleyways of the Old City, and the more than 2,000 year old Hatra archaeological site in the desert south of Mosul.

The jihadists took guns and pickaxes to the once extensive remains of the ancient city, releasing video footage in 2015 of their orgy of destruction. 

‘Saving the memory’

On his computer screen, Abdullah Bashir showed a 3D replica of the mosque housing the Nabi Yunus shrine — revered by both Muslims and Christians as the tomb of Prophet Jonah — which the extremists blew up in 2014.

“We used personal photos and shots taken by residents” to reconstruct the sites in their former state, he said.

But he said there were “very few” images before 2014, citing the “lack of photos” as the main difficulty.

Bashir and other specialised engineers from QAF Lab have brought the former scenes back to life, in a project he says is “a way of saving the memory of Mosul”.

After his virtual tour, visitor Mohammed Abdullah pushed his wheelchair around the real-life displays in museum’s vaulted rooms.

Many of the exhibits are daily-life objects donated by local families, from terracotta amphoras to oil lamps, traditional wall hangings, metal containers and even an old radio.

Abdullah, 28, a student of telecommunication engineering, also said the contrast between the VR and the reality of Mosul was painful.

“Reconstruction is extremely slow, and is not equal to the devastation,” said Abdullah.

He called for faster restoration of heritage sites both to attract tourists and to “breathe life” into nearby areas. 

Despite the bitter taste the virtual visit left, he said he has not lost hope. 

“The day will come when we will make this visit in reality,” he said. “It will be even better than the virtual one”.

Tags: HeritageIraqvirtual reality
ADVERTISEMENT
AFP

AFP

Related Posts

Russia detains WSJ reporter for espionage

byAFP
March 30, 2023, 6:30 pm
0
8
Taliban govt resumes issuing Afghan passports in Kabul

A US journalist working for the Wall Street Journal has been arrested in Russia on charges of spying for Washington,...

Read more

Pope spends ‘good night’ in hospital after infection

byAFP
March 30, 2023, 6:20 pm
0
8
Pope to pitch migrants in Greece, Cyprus trip

Pope Francis spent a calm night in hospital after being admitted for a respiratory infection and is expected to remain...

Read more

Colombia arrests 52 linked to int’l drug trade

byAFP
March 30, 2023, 6:10 pm
0
8
Taliban govt resumes issuing Afghan passports in Kabul

Colombian authorities have arrested 52 people linked to international drug trafficking in a major operation supported by the United States,...

Read more

Aussie okays emissions caps on big polluters

byAFP
March 30, 2023, 6:00 pm
0
8
Taliban govt resumes issuing Afghan passports in Kabul

Australia's parliament passed breakthrough climate laws targeting the nation's worst polluters on Thursday, forcing coal mines and oil refineries to...

Read more

CEMEX, DOT advocate a sustainable future

byThe Standard
March 30, 2023, 2:34 pm
0
8
CEMEX, DOT advocate a sustainable future

CEMEX Philippines President and CEO Luis Franco recently paid a courtesy visit to Department of Tourism Secretary Christina Garcia Frasco...

Read more

Marcos, Romualdez PH’s top representatives—RPMD

byThe Standard
March 30, 2023, 2:02 pm
0
8
Marcos, Romualdez PH’s top representatives—RPMD

The recent RP-Mission and Development Foundation (RPMD) “Boses ng Bayan” independent, non-commissioned survey revealed that House Senior Deputy Majority Leader...

Read more

Print Edition

View More

Recent Posts

  • Cool Smashers back as PVL queens, whip Angels in 4 sets
  • Gran Copa de Manila
  • ONE Championship sells out 1st US event; Filipino athletes express elation
  • Check out exciting deals, discounts at OPPO 4.4 Sale
  • La Salle Archers welcome new players
  • Shopee celebrates National Women’s Month via first EntrePinay Summit with speakers from DTI, BSP, PCW
  • UE stops UST tennis rampage with clinical 4-1 triumph
  • PH men’s hockey team ready for bigger challenge

Advertisement

Latest News

Shopee celebrates National Women’s Month via first EntrePinay Summit with speakers from DTI, BSP, PCW

byMST Tech
March 30, 2023, 9:31 pm
0
8
Shopee celebrates National Women’s Month via first EntrePinay Summit with speakers from DTI, BSP, PCW

In celebration of National Women’s Month this March, Shopee held its first ever Shopee EntrePinay: Women Entrepreneurs Summit to empower...

Read more

UE stops UST tennis rampage with clinical 4-1 triumph

byManila Standard Sports
March 30, 2023, 9:30 pm
0
8
PH Rugby Union elects new officers

University of the East avenged its close first-round defeat and handed University of Santo Tomas its first defeat in the...

Read more

PH men’s hockey team ready for bigger challenge

byPeter Atencio
March 30, 2023, 9:25 pm
0
8
Lewis says he’d be with Mercedes till ‘last days’

The Philippine men’s ice hockey team hopes to make a bigger impression in the international scene after bagging the gold...

Read more

Coo vows to push for more sports events for women

byRandy Caluag
March 30, 2023, 9:20 pm
0
8
Lewis says he’d be with Mercedes till ‘last days’

After watching women para-athletes push themselves to their limits in the recent Sports Obstacle competition, Philippine Sports Commissioner Bong Coo...

Read more

Lewis says he’d be with Mercedes till ‘last days’

byAFP
March 30, 2023, 9:15 pm
0
8
Lewis says he’d be with Mercedes till ‘last days’

Melbourne, Australia—Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton on Thursday emphatically put to bed any concerns that he wanted to leave Mercedes,...

Read more

Advertisement

ADVERTISEMENT
Facebook Twitter Instagram Youtube

ABOUT US

Manila Standard

Manila Standard website (manilastandard.net), launched in August 2002, extends the newspaper’s reach beyond its traditional readers and makes its brand of Philippine news and opinion available to a much wider and geographically diverse readership here and overseas.

Digital Edition

In tone and content, the online edition mirrors the editorial thrust of the newspaper. While hewing to the traditional precepts of fairness and objectivity, MS believes the news of the day need not be staid, overly long or dry. Stories are succinct, readable and written in a lively style that has become a hallmark of the newspaper.

Download – Today’s Paper

Search

No Result
View All Result

6th Floor Universal Re Bldg., 106 Paseo De Roxas cor. Perea Street, Legaspi Village, 1226 Makati City Philippines

Trunklines: 832-5554, 832-5556, 832-5558

© 2021 Manila Standard - Designed and Developed by Neitiviti Studios.

No Result
View All Result
  • About
  • News
    • Top Stories
    • National
    • World News
    • Pinoy Abroad
    • Features
  • Opinion
    • Editorial
    • Columns
    • Soundbytes
  • LGUs
    • NCR
    • Luzon
    • Visayas
    • Mindanao
  • Business
    • Corporate
    • Economy & Trade
    • Stocks
    • Money
    • Agri & Mining
    • Power & Tech
    • IT & Telecom
  • Sports
    • Basketball
    • Volleyball
    • Fightsports
    • Active
    • Sports Plus
    • One Championship
    • Columns
  • Entertainment
    • TV & Movies
    • Celebrity Profiles
    • Music & Concerts
    • Digital Media
    • Columns
  • Lifestyle
    • Food
    • Culture & Media
    • Fashion
    • Health and Home
    • Leisure
    • Shopping
    • Columns
  • Pop.Life
    • Newsmakers
    • Hangouts
    • A-Pop
    • Post Its
    • Performances
    • Malls & Bazaars
    • Hobbies & Collections
  • Technology
    • Gadgets
    • Computers
    • Business
    • Tech Plus
  • MS ON THE ROAD
    • Sedan
    • SUV
    • Truck
    • Bike
    • Accessories
    • Motoring Plus
    • Commuter’s Corner
  • Home & Design
    • Residential
    • Commercial
    • Construction
    • Interior
  • Spotlight
  • Gallery
    • Photos
    • Videos
  • Events
    • Seminars
    • Exhibits
    • Community
  • Biyahero
    • Travel Features
    • Travel Reels
    • Travel Logs
  • Pets
  • Advertise with Us

© 2021 Manila Standard - Designed and Developed by Neitiviti Studios.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In

Install Manila Standard Web App

Install App