Some interesting facts about the Ancient Rome 3D layer...

• The Ancient Rome layer is the first historical city in 3D to be added to Google Earth.  You can view many modern day cities in 3D around the world on Google Earth such as Zurich, San Francisco, Miami, Boston and Munich.

• The model depicts Rome in the year 320 AD - at the peak of its development with over a million inhabitants.  At this time it was the largest metropolis in the world and it wasn't until Victorian London  that another urban city surpassed Rome.  Because of its size and importance, Rome may be one of the most-studied cities in history.

• The city center of ancient Rome was the Roman Forum. A "forum" is an open area in a Roman city where important streets come together.

• The Ancient Rome in 3D layer is comprised of 6700 buildings and the building models contain 716 unique textures.

• The physical size of the model is 270MB of data.

• The model contains 11 buildings with viewable interiors within the model - these include:  Basilica of Maxentius, Colosseum, Forum of Julius Caesar, Ludus Magnus, Temple of Venus and Rome, Temple of Vesta, Regia, Basilica Iulia, Basilica Aemelia, Curia Iulia, Tabularium.

• The layer also contains pop-up information bubbles for more than 250 sites identified in the ancient city.  The first 'information bubble' will provide basic information that school children can understand.  A second click will provide more advanced information including a topographical encyclopedia, ancient literary sources and bibliographical information about each building.

• The model is actually based on a physical model - the “Plastico di Roma Antica” created by archaeologists and model-makers from 1933 to 1974 which is housed in a special gallery in the Museum of Roman Civilization in Rome.

• The Roman Colosseum is the biggest 3D model in the layer - it's an elliptical amphitheatre standing at the center of the city and within the layer you can even zoom inside to view the seating for around 80,000 spectators.

• Trajan's Column standing at the center of Trajan's Forum is a Roman monument to the military victories of the Emperor Trajan.  Panning around using Google Earth's navigation you can see how, at 125 feet, the column would've been visible from most of the surrounding squares.

• The Ludus Magnus, contained within the model is The Great Gladiatorial Training School -- Gladiators were professional fighters who fought against each other, wild animals and condemned criminals for the entertainment of spectators.

• As you might imagine, the terrain in Ancient Rome is different from how the city looks today.  In addition to the 3D buildings, Ancient Rome in 3D includes terrain based on archaeological data derived over many centuries.

• You can also learn about history using Google Earth through the Rumsey Historical Maps layer  which has been specially selected from a collection of over 150,000 historical maps.  Each map has been georeferenced allowing the old maps to appear in their correct places on the modern globe.   Some of the maps fit perfectly in their modern spaces, while others (generally earlier period maps) reveal interesting geographical misconceptions of their time and therefore have to be more distorted to fit properly in Google Earth.