One of South Africa's World Heritage sites, the Sterkfontein Caves, is also due to be added to Street View in the coming months. The 360 degree images are now online at Google Maps.
Google and UNESCO also announced layers for Google Earth and Google Maps with customised icons and information bubbles, allowing web users to locate and zoom to hundreds of sites with World heritage status around the globe, all linking back to UNESCO's webpage.
In the coming months Google will work with UNESCO to select additional World Heritage landmarks, in countries where Street View imagery is being collected, which will be photographed for the project. The aim is to collect imagery from diverse regions throughout the world including Australia, Brazil, Canada, Japan, Mexico, South Africa, US and many countries throughout Europe. It's hoped that putting UNESCO's world heritage sites on Street View will help increase awareness and encourage participation by people around the world in the preservation of our cultural and natural heritage.
Google uses camera technology attached to the roof of a car in order to collect these images. They are then processed, stitched together and put into Google Maps, a process which can take several months. Where access by car is not possible, or locations are off the beaten track, Google uses its custom made 'trike' - a three wheeled bike mounted with a camera, to take the images. For example, the trike was used to collect imagery at Stonehenge, the Palace of Versailles, Pompei and will soon be used to collect imagery of Sterkfontein Caves in South Africa.
"World Heritage is our legacy from the past, what we live with today, and what we pass on to future generations. It reminds us of the extraordinary world we live in, and humanity's creative genius and cultural diversity," said Francesco Bandarin, director of UNESCO's World Heritage Centre. "The alliance between UNESCO and, Google Maps and Street View will provide access for people the world over to these remarkable places."
Carlo D'Asaro Biondo, Google's VP of Southern Europe, Middle East and Africa said, "Cultural and natural heritage sites are a source of inspiration and fascination for all of us, teaching us about our global history. This is an exciting project and we're thrilled to be working together with UNESCO, to make more World Heritage sites universally accessible and useful to all."
From today people can virtually walk along the banks of the Seine in Paris. From the Louvre to the Eiffel Tower, the evolution of Paris and its history can be seen from its banks. They can also swoop over to Italy to explore the two flourishing Roman towns of Pompei and Herculaneum, as well as the many wealthy villas in the area that have been engulfed by Vesuvius eruption on 24 August AD 79. These have been progressively excavated and made accessible to the public since the mid-18th century and are now available for all with a simple click of a mouse.
Stonehenge, in Wiltshire, one of the most famous groups of megaliths in the world is another locations that can be discovered today. The circles of menhirs are arranged in a pattern whose astronomical significance is still being explored. These holy places and the nearby Neolithic sites are an incomparable testimony to prehistoric times.
Other unique and diverse places visible in Street View include the Mill Network at Kinderdijk-Elshout in Nederland, the old town of Caceres in Spain and the historic Center of Prague in Czech Republic and many more.
Google works in partnership with landmarks and attractions in several countries to put them on the map. The Street View partnership programme is available for sign up here at
https://services.google.com/fb/forms/streetviewinterestedpartner.
The 19 UNESCO heritage sites currently available in Street View:
