Hearing that the Taliban were destroying hundreds of religious statues and temples in Afghanistan in 2001 was a life changing moment for photographer Tito Dupret. Their actions inspired him to document UNESCO’s World Heritage sites in QTVR panoramas. And it has turned into his life’s work. For the past seven years, he has been on the road, traveling from one amazing location to another, camera in hand, determined to create panographies of each and every World Heritage site. So far, 253 of his panographics are posted on the WHTour site that he has been creating.

Panography is what he does and he is good at it. So if you fancy a visit to a World Heritage site but don’t have the time or the money to physically get there, go 360 with Tito instead. It’s the next best thing to being there yourself.

I’ve just been visiting Nubia in Egypt. I stood outside Abu Simbel and did the 360, looking first at the monuments, turning slowly towards the sea. I looked down at sand and up to the towering monuments. I zoomed into and out of the scene as I pleased, like I was holding the camera myself. It truly felt like I was there.

WHTour is one site not to be missed.

So excuse me while I head back there again. It’s time to go inside Abu Simbel…

But first, I’m going to sign up and become a member of WHTours. That way, I can get full screen access to all of the panoramic photographs plus be notified when new panographies appear.

And if you want to know more about the project and the photographer, then have a read of these two interviews:

An Update on World Heritage Traveler and Photographer Tito Dupret

A Conversation with Tito Dupret About His World Heritage Tour

Happy virtual traveling.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 21st, 2008 at 12:56 am and is filed under Liz projects, Middle East travel, novel travel, photography, travel websites. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.