Google offers virtual visits to Mexican archaeological sites

Netizens will be able to take virtual strolls through 30 Mexican archaeological sites using Google Mexico's Street View platform, Mexican cultural authorities said.

The 360-degree virtual view of these archaeological sites, which include Teotihuacan, Xochicalco, Monte Alban, Chichen Itza, Tulum, Palenque, Tula and Paquime, allows them to be explored down to the last corner.

This is the first time a gallery featuring such sites has been uploaded onto Street View, and the purpose of the project is to encourage cultural tourism, Mexico's National Anthropology and History Institute, or INAH, said in a communique.

The project, dubbed Special Collections Street View, was presented Thursday in Mexico City with the explanation that in the first stage 30 sites will be on view, but by the end of the year Google Mexico hopes to have 81 sites online.

The app will allow cybernauts to make virtual tours on the Internet thanks to the panoramic photographs of each archaeological site.

By means of the Google Earth and Maps platforms, users can travel inside pre-Columbian cities and their surrounding areas.

In 2011 an alliance was established between INAH and Google Mexico for the international display of the nation's cultural riches.