Google Earth Tour: Ancient Africa – The “Forgotten” Roman Empire

Google Earth Tour - Roman Sites in North AfricaA recent interview by Lyn with author of North Africa:The Roman Coast, Ethel Davies, inspired me to take another look at Roman archaeological finds across this somewhat forgotten continent. When most people think of the Roman Empire, they immediately envision the temples, statues and amphitheatres spanning across Europe. But the vast coastal border of North Africa was controlled by the Romans too, and they certainly left their mark!

Ethel Davies listed her top ten sites across North Africa, which I’ve compiled into an easy to navigate Google Earth Tour, which will whisk you across the continent in just minutes! It’s complete with images and key facts about ancient relics across the vast continent. The tour enables you to fly over and explore the sites and their surroundings, and where you see a Heritage Key logo, you can click it and you’ll see more information about the adjacent landmark.

To view this Google Earth Tour, you will need to download additional software created by Google. You will require Google Earth 5.0 which will need to be installed in order to explore the aerial photography in a 3D environment. Once the software is installed, you will need to return to this webpage and download Google Earth Plugin (Your browser should meet minimum requirements). the Plugin can be downloaded by selecting it in the panel below:

To open webpages in a new window, right click the link in the information window and select “Open link in new window”. This will enable you to view the link in a full web browser.

You can also download this tour to your computer by clicking here, selecting “Save” and then running the file. It will automatically open Google Earth and begin the Heritage Key: Ancient Rome tour.

Have a look through our previous Heritage Key Google Earth Tours, and subscribe to be notified when new ones are added!