Ephesos 4D – The Virtual City

The project “Ephesos 4D - The Virtual City” further develops the long tradition of graphic reconstructions of buildings and urban spaces for the presentation of research results in archaeology and building research. For the first time, the manifold reconstruction drawings resulting from more than 125 years of research in Ephesos are digitally modeled in their entirety systematically using uniform rules and taking into account international standards for computer-based visualization of cultural heritage. Their positioning in a digital city model is carried out using current geodetic data. 7reasons Medien GmbH, a company specialized in multimedia presentation of research results, implements the visualizations.

The more than 2000 years of history and urban development in Ephesos requires a definition of periods to which the visualization refers. In the current project phase, the imperial city as well as the Ephesos of late antiquity are considered.

The project places the investigated Ephesian buildings in their urban and contemporary historical context. In this way, historic urban situations and urban planning concepts can be virtually explained to an interested public. Furthermore, the visualizations will also allow future scientific applications of computer-supported tools and simulations, for example, in the context of urbanistic or architectural-historical investigations.

For research in Ephesos, the project provides a new quality in presentation and communication of the complex transformation processes of the city’s building history.

Illustration The so-called Alytarchenstoa in Imperial Ephesos (Reconstruction: OeAW-OeAI/7reasons Medien GmbH; based on: U. Quatember - V. Scheibelreiter - A. Sokolicek, Die sog. Alytarchenstoa an der Kuretenstraße von Ephesos, AForsch 15, 2009, pp. 111-154).