Talking Pyramids

I thought it’s about time I gave readers a bit of an update on some of the recent happenings here at Talking Pyramids and some of the new features that will be implemented in the near future. Aside from posting regular news items concerning the world of ancient Egyptian pyramids, one of the main features of this site is the Pyramid Fields, accessable via the links on the top right under the heading ‘Pyramid Fields‘.

Google Satellite Maps
Unfortunately a minor glitch has a occured with the sublinks underneath each of the interactive Google Satellite Maps that allow you to automatically zoom in on individual pyramids. I am working on correcting this but in the mean time you can still navigate around each site manually by clicking and dragging and using the navigation located in the top left corner of each satellite map.

Video Tours
The Google Earth videos that I am creating for each of the pyramid fields has started with Abu Roash and I’ll be adding more of these as time permits. Giza is next and I’ll be working down the list from there.

Interactive Panorama for Giza Plateau
One of the new additions to the Giza Pyramid Field is an interactive panorama courtesy of 360 Cities. Here is an example:

I strongly recommend exploring in full screen by clicking the box in the top left corner. There are several panoramas on the Giza Plateau allowing you to move up close to the pyramids and Sphinx. Use the foward pointing white arrows that appear as you move arround. You can even leave the plateau and visit other places such as Memphis to view the massive Collosus statue of Rameses II, the new Library of Alexandria, the tomb of Meryra at Armana, the Neropolis tombs at Asyut, Tihna el Gebel, the Valley of the Kings, the Temple of Seti I at Abydos, the Basillica of Ptolemy III at Hermopolis, Karnak Temple, board a feluca on the river Nile, visit Hatshepsut’s obelisk, and much more. You can read more about 360 Cities via the link above or just jump in and start exploring.

Photos on Flickr
I’ve been adding some more photos to the Flickr account which is the source of the photo gallery that you can always access via the randomly generated grid of nine images on the right column. The latest addition are some of the new tickets to enter the archaeological sites around Egypt. They show some of the current charges to access the sites and are in Egyptian pounds, L.E. Currently the value of 1 L.E. is equal to 0.14 Euros, or 0.18 US dollars. Tomorrow’s post will list the current entry charges to many more of the tourist sites.

Recent Tweets
Bennu, my alter ego, continues to churn out more general Egyptology news items each day via the mirco blogging platform Twitter. Twitter has gained in popularity over the past year and now has millions of users. You don’t need a Twitter account to follow the updates but if you do have an account you can add Bennu to your list of contacts to keep up to date with Egyptology news. Twitter also provides the option of sending and receiving messages via your cell phone. This makes it an ideal tool for Archaeologist out in the field and I expect we’ll see more Archaeologists utelising this free service for this reason.

New Domain Name
Talking Pyramids now has it’s own domain name: www.talkingpyramids.com. At the moment this is just redirecting to the existing address but the site will be moving over to www.talkingpyramids.com in the near future.

These are some of the new features here at Talking Pyramids.

Related posts:

1. ‘Talking Pyramids’ Update There have been a few new additions and changes to...
2. Web Host Problem Temporarily Mutes Talking Pyramids I appologise for some of the problems you have noticed...
3. Talking Pyramids Welcome to the Talking Pyramids blog! Stay tuned in to...
4. Talking Pyramids Weekly Here is a bit of a wrap up of the...
5. Giza Pyramids in 360 degrees Here is a great interactive 360 degree panorama of the...

Tags: Giza, khafre, Khufu, menkaure

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 21st, 2009 at 7:25 pm and is filed under Interactive, Photos, Site Updates. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.