Immersive

Ancient sites as 3D worlds you can walk through

Immersive 3D scans of ancient sites to walk through in your browser: the Sona mounds, the Germisara Roman baths, the White Faces sanctuary.

Runs in your browser, with nothing to install.
The first visit downloads the place, so it takes a moment to appear.
Experimental: large scenes can still stutter or close on some devices.

What you need

Computer
- A recent Chrome, Edge, Firefox or Safari
- A laptop or PC from the last few years; a graphics card helps
Phone or tablet
- A recent phone with Chrome or Safari, on Wi-Fi: places are large downloads
- Close other apps to free memory

Each world shows its own controls when it opens.

Sona Mounds
Rising silently from the rolling meadows near the village of Șona, just a few kilometers from Făgăraș in Brașov County, these enigmatic earthen mounds are one of Romania's most mysterious and overlooked landmarks. Known locally as guruiețí, the mounds number seven to eight in total, arranged in two nearly parallel rows, ordered by size, and reaching heights of up to 30 meters — an impressive sight against the sweeping backdrop of the Făgăraș Mountains. Their origin remains a puzzle even for specialists. Archaeological findings on the site include ceramic fragments dating to the Late Bronze Age and the Hallstatt period, leading historians to suggest they may be the burial tombs of Celtic or Scythian chieftains who passed through Transylvania long before the Dacians. According to this theory, additional mounds were created deliberately to confuse would-be grave robbers — a practice found across Scandinavia and Central Europe. Yet science competes here with legend. Locals say the land was once ruled by a princess named Șona, whose kingdom was attacked by giants descending from the Făgăraș Mountains. Crossing the Olt River, the giants shook the mud from their feet — and so the mounds were born. Whether ancient tombs, sacred markers, or the footprints of giants, the Mounds of Șona offer a rare and contemplative experience: wide open skies, the quiet of the Olt valley, and a deep sense of standing somewhere time has not quite let go.
Enter
Germisara Ancient Thermae
Ancient Thermae complex in Romania
Enter
White Faces Sanctuary
Ancient hub of Dacian priestesses near Sarmisagetusa known as the 'White Faces'
Enter
Stone Ravens Monastery
Near the unique 14th-century rock-carved monastery of Corbii de Piatră (Stone Ravens), in the village of Jgheaburi / Corbi, Argeș County, a striking natural rock formation emerges from the limestone hillside beside a small waterfall. Local legend calls it the “Petrified Giant” (Uriașul pietrificat or Piciorul Uriașului). Erosion has revealed what appears to be the roughly 7-meter-long outline of a human figure lying face-down—legs, ankles, hips, torso, and (in earlier accounts) a detached head and arm still visible in the rock and grass. Elders say more of the form was once clearer before parts collapsed over time. According to folklore, this is the body of a giant who drowned during the biblical Flood (Noah’s Potop) and was later revealed by the waters. Its proportions are often compared to those of ancient Egyptian statues. The site remains a popular curiosity for visitors to the monastery, blending geology, legend, and the area’s rich layer of local mystery.
Enter
Detunata Goala Peak
Near Bucium in Romania's Apuseni Mountains, in Alba County, the bare peak of Detunata Goală is made of six-sided basalt columns that formed as volcanic rock cooled. Its neighbor, Detunata Flocoasă, stands about 1.5 kilometers away, and the area has been a protected geological reserve since 1936. Geologists have dated the youngest rock here to about 7.6 million years, while some accounts place the eruptions in the Pliocene. The name is read two ways: as "struck by lightning", or after the thunder-like sound of falling rock.
Enter
The Dolmen at Hlyabovo
Near the village of Hlyabovo (municipality of Topolovgrad, Haskovo Province) in the Sakar Mountains of southeastern Bulgaria stands one of the country’s most impressive prehistoric monuments: a group of Thracian dolmens, including the largest and best-preserved examples in Bulgaria (and among the finest in southeastern Europe). These megalithic tombs—built from massive local granite slabs—date to the Early Iron Age (roughly 12th–6th centuries BC, with key structures around 1050–500 BC). They typically consist of one or more chambers formed by upright stone walls and capped by huge horizontal covering slabs. After burial, the structures were usually covered by earthen mounds. The most celebrated is the so-called “Royal Dolmen” (Tsarski Dolmen) in the Byalata Treva locality, a multi-chambered tomb with a monumental façade; another major example lies in the Nachevi Chairi area. Used as tombs for high-status individuals of the ancient Thracian population, these dolmens represent the earliest monumental funerary architecture on Bulgarian lands and the precursors to later, more elaborate Thracian tombs. Declared a protected natural landmark in 1964, the Hlyabovo group remains a striking testament to the engineering skill and beliefs of the people who once inhabited this region.
Enter
Adamclisi
At Adamclisi, about 60 kilometers from Constanța in Romania, stands the Tropaeum Traiani, a victory monument raised in 109 CE after Trajan's war against the Dacians and dedicated to Mars Ultor, Mars the Avenger. Its frieze held 54 carved panels, called metopes, showing the Roman campaigns, and most of those that survive are now in the Adamclisi museum. The drum on the site today is a 1977 reconstruction built around the original core. The panels' first order on the monument is still studied, because the excavation records cannot fix it exactly.
Enter
Stone Forest (Pobiti Kamani)
West of Varna in Bulgaria, natural stone columns, the tallest 6 to 10 meters high, rise from the sand in groups along a belt more than 8 kilometers long. The Russian officer Viktor Teplyakov took them for ruins in the 1820s, but they are the hardened sands of a sea floor about 50 million years old. How the sand turned to stone is still open: De Boever and colleagues trace the columns to methane seeping up through it, Nachev and colleagues to small mounds built by microbes and algae.
Enter

What you need

Computer
- A recent Chrome, Edge, Firefox or Safari
- A laptop or PC from the last few years; a graphics card helps
Phone or tablet
- A recent phone with Chrome or Safari, on Wi-Fi: places are large downloads
- Close other apps to free memory

Each world shows its own controls when it opens.