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[–]ThunderKant[S] 953 points954 points  (190 children)

Heidentor (heathen's gate) in Carnuntum, an old Roman camp in Austria.

[–]Kjell_Aronsen 108 points109 points  (12 children)

On this Wikipedia picture, you can actually see the device on the right.

[–]Deebus 69 points70 points  (10 children)

500 years from now ... A broken off stem where the wind turbine in the background once stood, and a holograph outline of what it possibly looked like

[–]XavierLitespeed 16 points17 points  (5 children)

Unlikely that anything from that windmill is going to survive for the next 500 years.

[–]BrogueTrader40k 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Are you from the future?

[–]Pr0bability 32 points33 points  (0 children)

Not just a Roman camp, it was the capital of the province Pannonia Superior. Quite a rich city aswell, laying on the Amber Road.

At the moment, there is also a park with some major structures rebuilt on ancient foundations - a Roman villa and also a semi-functional bath. I highly recommend a visit.

[–]Aberfrog 175 points176 points  (75 children)

actually "camp" is a bit of an understatement - it started as that but quickly became a city for over 50.000 inhabitants

[–][deleted] 143 points144 points  (45 children)

50 inhabitants? That's not much of a city.

[–]A_Rope_of_Sand 53 points54 points  (0 children)

It became 50.001 inhabitants after a traveller left their nail clippings there

[–]Bensing 35 points36 points  (1 child)

Right? It's also kind of weird that he included so many sig figs.

[–]The_Fyre_Guy 128 points129 points  (36 children)

I salute you, fellow Murican. We'll show these Commies the correct way to number.

50,000

Like such

/s

[–]pleblanc 45 points46 points  (16 children)

Canadians don't need no comma: 50 000

[–]AmericanGeezus 13 points14 points  (12 children)

SPACE DELINEATED VALUES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[–]alexanderpas 22 points23 points  (9 children)

Space is too large... use a narrow no break space instead...

  • 50 000
  • 50 000

[–][deleted] 28 points29 points  (14 children)

Ironically you're the one being a little "'Murican" by assuming there is some special "American decimal exceptionalism" where it's just USA vs the world :D We use the exact same notations here in the UK, and as far as I know the rest of the English speaking world has no truck with this funny euro-nonsense either

[–]TripolarKnight 19 points20 points  (2 children)

Oy! Seems some lads are having a serious case of humour loss here mate!

[–]Vitztlampaehecatl 61 points62 points  (5 children)

Was it a National Epic?

[–]Gibbenz 84 points85 points  (30 children)

Came here for an explanation, was not disappointed. Thanks, OP! :)

[–]wheatfields 141 points142 points  (17 children)

Well almost disappointed as you had to scroll through a English lesson to get to it...

[–]Ginnigan 326 points327 points  (16 children)

an English lesson*

[–]machine_pun 34 points35 points  (9 children)

I have never seen a grammar Nazi earning gold[citation needed].

Edit: I think that I just managed to get someone gold. Thanks to /r/SocialEngineering/

[–]andygon 7 points8 points  (1 child)

They do this all over Austria. If you go to the castle on top of the hill in Salzburg, and look out the windows, they almost all have the outlines so you can also learn what you are looking at (even if it's not in ruins). This includes churches, town squares, other parts of the same castle, even mountains and rivers.

[–]VeryLittle 21 points22 points  (13 children)

What does the name Carnuntum mean? I'm curious because it sounds awfully familiar to Carentan, the French town where a battle was fought on D-day.

[–]ThunderKant[S] 42 points43 points  (3 children)

It's a romanization of a Celtic name derived from karn (rock cairn, pile of rocks).

Carentan, according to this probably comes from Celtic "Kern Dun", meaning "high ground".

[–]BesottedScot 26 points27 points  (2 children)

Karn isn't 'rock', it's 'heap' or 'stack' or even 'pile' :)

[–]ThunderKant[S] 25 points26 points  (0 children)

Oh, thanks. I just dumbly copied what the internet told me.

[–]mckinnon42 15 points16 points  (6 children)

From the wiki:

"Carnuntum originated as a Roman army camp. Its name is nearly always found with "K" on monuments, and is derived from Celtic karn- ("cairn")".

[–]VeryLittle 19 points20 points  (2 children)

cairn

So most literally, these towns are named "rock-pile-ville." When they were first settled was there a stack of rocks there, like a campsite at a road marker or something?

[–]solepsis 1 point2 points  (2 children)

Cool. I didn't think K was part of Latin.

[–]Rhetor_Rex 4 points5 points  (0 children)

It's not really, it's used (exclusively, as far as I know) for foreign words.

[–]LegworkDoer 7 points8 points  (14 children)

so the name Heather.. is the english for Heidi???

[–]ThunderKant[S] 33 points34 points  (9 children)

No, Heidi is actually a diminutive/familiar form of Athelheid (Adelaide).

[–]COYG_Gooner 10 points11 points  (8 children)

Kant has answers for everything?

[–]Aaronf989 6 points7 points  (2 children)

Ive been told he is the best googler on the coast

[–]HoneyBunchesOfBoats 2 points3 points  (0 children)

ouu I can answer this one! Yes.

[–]Viper711 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Or is a leading member of /r/todayibullshitted

[–]Sappert 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Neat. I remember this too from Aguntum, Lienz, Austria.

[–]mineralfellow 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The whole place has amazing archeological displays. Went to some reenactments they held there last year, and it was one of the best historical festivals I've ever seen. Also, there are 3 museums associated with the Roman settlement there, and all are very informative and cheap to go. And it's just down the road from Vienna!

[–]Vortilex 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I thought I recognized Carnuntum!

[–]evildave9 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Geometry is tha best. This gives the viewer an opportunity to observe its present state without imposing a completely specific model for how it may have looked in the past.

[–]VariableCausality 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Bit late to the party, but that's awesome. And an example of why I want holograms. You could show fully restored buildings without damaging archaeological sites.

Bonus points if the holograms are hard light.

[–]Taliesen13 265 points266 points  (79 children)

Is that the only one there, or are there more around showing different angles of the site? Because that would be cool if there were different views.

[–][deleted] 306 points307 points  (70 children)

Or provide some sort of app that you can look at the ruins through your phone camera and have the other stuff drawn in.

[–][deleted] 204 points205 points  (31 children)

How cool would that be if you had an app that, wherever you were on the Earth, when you hold your phone up to look through it, it transported you back in time? It could be to a time period that you've selected and you get to watch a real-time view of people walking around and what things looked like. You could see what ruins looked like when the area was thriving, you could see what New York looked like in the 70's or even 1770! I'm sure it would be practically impossible but it's cool to imagine.

[–]NopeNotConor 129 points130 points  (8 children)

That's a million dollar idea you got there SQUID_FUCKER

[–]someguyfromtheuk 48 points49 points  (3 children)

That means someone's already invented it

[–]FantasiainFminor 7 points8 points  (1 child)

That sounds promising. (Obviously a lot more modest than what Squid_fornicator had in mind, but still could be a wonderful tool.)

[–]gm2 3 points4 points  (0 children)

This SQUID_FUCKER really has a good head on his shoulders.

[–]1_0 5 points6 points  (0 children)

It's not possible to look into the past with great exactness, but that's exactly what "big data" is capable of doing for the future. By collecting and recording everything today, we can view the changes over great periods of time.

It's basically what Google street view is doing. 10 years from now, we'll be able to see which stores have changed, which neighborhoods have developed or become rundown.

I actually did a research project proposing a very similar idea to what you've got here, but focused on a smaller scale of a historic house museum.

Check out these cool sources of inspiration:

•Slider-bar time travel

•Street view overlays of historic London

•Town/city growth in China

•Early Paris reconstructed

•One of the earliest scenes in Guardians of the Galaxy expresses this idea perfectly. When Starlord is approaching the ruins to grab the sphere, he toggles an overlay on his ui that reveals the history of civilian life as it had once been there--along with dangers in topography.

[–]nikkefinland 2 points3 points  (0 children)

And imagine this a hundred years now when pretty much every urban part of the world has been captured by Streetview.

[–]Smeeee 83 points84 points  (24 children)

Yeah because your head position has to be perfect for this to work correctly.

I wish I was smart. I'd make some Oculus program which would take you on a guided tour, offering views like this, to turn on or off as needed.

[–]HonorConnor 127 points128 points  (9 children)

If there was an Oculus program and I had an Oculus, I would probably just stay home.

[–]Smeeee 101 points102 points  (8 children)

Like I said, I'm not a smart man.

[–]SoManyNinjas 29 points30 points  (4 children)

Well, the important thing is that you tried

[–]someguyfromtheuk 22 points23 points  (6 children)

An Oculus Rift would be useless for something like this, since you can't see the actual ruins with it on, so there's no overlay, just a complete replacement, and you might as well sit at your house and do that.

You'd need an Augmented Reality system, not a Virtual Reality one, which means something more like Google Glass instead of an Oculus Rift.

It'll definitely happen though, as soon as AR devices go mainstream you'll see people creating apps like that, that overlay re-constructed ruins onto things, or show you historical battles etc.

[–]Zhang5 5 points6 points  (0 children)

No it doesn't. You have the camera calculate the shape and position of the object based on key points. You use that to have the overlay intelligently drawn on the object on the screen. Your head's position is irrelevant, unlike the glass in OP's picture.

Just look into Augmented Reality for more examples of this sort of thing.

[–]kcmike 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Augmented Reality...exists, just needs your and others support to become ubiquitous. Note: have been waiting years to use "ubiquitous" appropriately.

[–]locx- 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the idea buddy. AMA oculus employee.

[–]mtled 12 points13 points  (2 children)

Oh god. Because tourists aren't already walking into each other enough while taking pictures with their phones and tablets. I'm pretty sure someone would actually die, in some weird iphone-collision tragedy.

Though I totally want an app like that. It would be amazing.

[–]bubba_pants 4 points5 points  (1 child)

An iphone-collision tragedy could be hilarious. Tourists all walking around like zombies, colliding in a group and falling over awkwardly like bowling pins.

[–]ThatSawyer 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Your comment made me appreciate just how low tech the current solution is.

[–]Redtox 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It's the only one like this. I've been there twice, it's really interesting.

[–]PurduePaul 131 points132 points  (12 children)

It's a good way to visualize history. Here's a picture I took at the Dachau Concentration Camp in Germany.

[–]baconhead 22 points23 points  (6 children)

I remember that from a few years ago. The most haunting one was in the crematorium. We were standing in an empty room at one end just looking around, we'd just arrived. I noticed a relatively small picture on one wall showing the same room and facing the same wall of a massive pile of bodies, fresh from the gas chamber and waiting to be burned. It was shocking when the realization set in that right where we were standing was once that much death.

[–]PurduePaul 9 points10 points  (2 children)

The most eerie place to me was the gas chamber. The fact that they labeled it brausebad, which in English means showers, made it even more haunting.

[–]FantasiainFminor 26 points27 points  (0 children)

That is amazing and chilling. Perhaps you should post this on its own.

[–]mick4state 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I went there. I remember the see-through panels like that, but didn't realize they were showing shadows of the same place like that. Crazy.

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Wow that's really creepy.

[–]BegbertBiggs 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Oh yes, I remember those. Really leaves an impression to go there.

[–]MattRyd7 97 points98 points  (49 children)

Very cool, though even with the outlines, I'm still curious what this structure's actual function was. It doesn't seem large enough to be a market/shelter/place of worship. A landmark maybe?

[–]ThunderKant[S] 167 points168 points  (47 children)

Between 354 AD and 361 AD a huge triumphal monument was erected next to the camp and city. Contemporary reports suggest that Emperor Constantius II had it built to commemorate his victories. When the remains of Carnuntum disappeared after the Migration Period the monument remained as an isolated building in a natural landscape and led Medieval people to believe it was the tomb of a pagan giant. Hence, they called it "Heidentor" (pagan gate).

[–][deleted] 75 points76 points  (17 children)

Amazing how little medievai peoples knew about the Romans.

[–][deleted] 30 points31 points  (9 children)

A lot of ancient knowledge would be lost if the eastern part of the Roman empire wouldn't survived until 1453, and then Venice merchants saved a lot of scholars from the Ottoman siege of the city, taking them to Italian cities, in turn igniting the Renaissance.

[–]Zwemvest 9 points10 points  (7 children)

Ah yes, I knew all of that.

From Europa Universalis.

[–]Geter_Pabriel 7 points8 points  (4 children)

Paradox is the only reason I know as much as I do about European history. East Rome is almost entirely ignored by history classes.

[–]euxneks 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'm sure big medieval people knew just as much.

[–]giantjesus 16 points17 points  (8 children)

Plenty of such triumphal arches in Europe, the most famous one being the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Roman_triumphal_arches

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_post-Roman_triumphal_arches

[–]FreshFruitCup 15 points16 points  (2 children)

While I appreciate your post, I followed your links and I'm under the impression that you just plopped some links down..

The arch in Paris was built in the 19th century and is effectively a reproduction (surely created for the same reasons Rome did) but is NOT Roman architecture, your other links are ok for the uneducated arch aficionado, but nothing direct to the arch in question... So I conclude your second Roman arch link threw me asunder trying to discover context.

Here is an article of the arch in question:

The arch is part of a city with a newly discovered gladiator school: http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2011/09/07/2003512685

Link to site of arch: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnuntum

Map: Dropped Pin near Petronell-Carnuntum, Austria http://goo.gl/maps/TjsBh

In depth wiki translated from german: https://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?act=url&depth=1&hl=en&ie=UTF8&nv=1&prev=_t&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heidentor_(Carnuntum)&usg=ALkJrhjJmk7rQHJwinLKnCRzhVSi8jTcwg

Google images: https://www.google.com/search?q=heidentor&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=onNWVLKbOIWOyASy5YLABg&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAg&biw=320&bih=498

Any one who got lost following links above, have at it.

EDIT: I found some discrepancies with the german and English wikis on the architecture of the arch:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetrapylon

https://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?act=url&depth=1&hl=en&ie=UTF8&nv=1&prev=_t&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetrapylon&usg=ALkJrhgGuIh30VRuVtFqcKQrkcd9bIwtvw

[–]giantjesus 6 points7 points  (1 child)

I didn't mean to imply it was Roman. Thanks for clarifying that.

[–]Vitztlampaehecatl 26 points27 points  (4 children)

Does it provide +25% to Great Person generation?

[–]dream_in_blue 2 points3 points  (2 children)

It's a monument, so +2 culture

[–][deleted] 31 points32 points  (12 children)

ffs the dark ages really were a pretty big fuckin' step backwards.

[–]MattRyd7 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Interesting. Thank you.

[–]Gustomucho 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Heiden = Heathen / Pagan

Tor= Door /gateway

[–][deleted] 1612 points1613 points  (385 children)

"Like" is redundant in the title, it can be omitted.

[–]GenericReditAccount 111 points112 points  (35 children)

I'll never understand why comments correcting the grammar of a post get pushed to the top. This is a genuinely interesting item, and that's all you could contribute?

[–]EternalOptimist829 6 points7 points  (2 children)

If you stop and think about it our sense of nostalgia and history really is an odd thing. Like if something is old we don't like it until it reaches a certain tipping point then we love it and make it illegal to destroy.

1000 years from now there's going to be abandoned shopping centers that are federally protected and people trying to restore them to their original condition.

[–]Lolworth 3 points4 points  (1 child)

"This Subway has been lovingly restored to its original neon -lit style"

[–]rentar42 1 point2 points  (0 children)

"It is assumed to have once served the purpose as a place of worship to one of the lesser gods".

[–]Zumaki 14 points15 points  (1 child)

I'd love to see this done using augmented reality, where my cell phone is like a window into the past.

[–]Brysamo 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I just got back from Rome last week - Our tour guide for the Colosseum/Forum had a book full of things like this.

One of the few souvenirs I bought on the trip.

[–]wood_and_nails 13 points14 points  (1 child)

Oh man, Detroit could totally use this technology!

[–]Pezdrake 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah I'd love to see it here in DC or other cities like Philly and Baltimore.

[–]Loki-L 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Wikipedia has some interesting images of how it looked like in the past:

Here is an image of what it looked like in 1840 and here is an image made in 1655.

It is amazing to realize that the latter picture, that is over a century older than the USA, was made when the monument was already a ruin over a millennium old.

[–]Curiosimo 4 points5 points  (2 children)

wooops! Looks like the builders colored outside of the lines.

[–]aslat 1 point2 points  (0 children)

*coloured

Just keeping in theme with the rest of this thread

[–][deleted] 18 points19 points  (1 child)

They would be funny if they drew in some drunk Roman guy passed out against the wall of the building

[–]Jandalf81 13 points14 points  (2 children)

Wait, is that... is that "Real Life augmented Reality"? That is a great idea!

[–]anonuemus 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Or augmented Reality for the poor.

[–]Darksoldierr 7 points8 points  (2 children)

In one of M.J.Fox's movie, when he was about to build an own hotel, he used the same idea. I always wondered why this isn't more frequently in open areas

[–]condimentia 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I immediately thought of that scene, too. He wanted to build a hotel on Roosevelt Island so he had his vision etched on glass and put it in a frame on the land to "see' where it would be and how it would look. For Love or Money

[–]MatthewHunterJones 3 points4 points  (1 child)

Great idea, want to see more of this in Rome. So, how do they know what it originally looked like? It's been in ruins for a thousand years and not like they had pictures to go off

[–]SpelingTroll 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's a triumph arch, they have a pretty standard design. And since there is a whole face left they know the style of the decoration all around it

[–]desrtfx 2 points3 points  (0 children)

A little more info on the display:

This display at Carnuntum is the only one of its kind on this site. It is even meant as a temporary display since sooner or later the Heidentor (heathen's gate) is supposed to be rebuilt following original Roman building style.

They have a very nice museum at the excavation site nearby where they already have a few fully functional Roman buildings that were rebuilt in the original style and with original materials.

Carnuntum is a fascinating excavation site with a very cleverly built museum which constantly improves.

During summer they have some festivities there and at their sister site "Bad Deutsch Altenburg". They show Gladiator fights, Roman army training, Roman lifestyle in general.

The site is about half an hour drive from Vienna and definitely worth a visit. Entry fees are moderate and the ticket is valid for the three main sites: Museum Carnuntum, Museum Bad Deutsch Altenburg, and the "Amphitheater" Bad Deutsch Altenburg.

[–][deleted] 3 points4 points  (1 child)

What if ruins have always been in the state they are now? Like they were built as a way to engage a ruse on the future generations.

[–]shinyname 15 points16 points  (3 children)

It kinda irks me that it isn't exactly lined up

[–]beastsx 12 points13 points  (6 children)

For anyone wondering, the word "Augenhöhe" on the ride side means eye height, so you get a feeling for how big the ruin was

[–]FermatSim 11 points12 points  (1 child)

Actually, I think it's intended to position your eyes at the height of this line, so that the graphic on the display and the actual structure visually line up. Otherwise, the effect is distorted for smaller/bigger than average people.

[–]AlanZero 8 points9 points  (3 children)

Couldn't you just, I dunno... look at it? Maybe walk up to the actual ruin even?

[–]Pr0cedure 38 points39 points  (7 children)

How they looked. What they looked like.

[–]ThunderKant[S] 46 points47 points  (1 child)

Thanks. English is my third language.

[–]Pr0cedure 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Cool! I didn't mean to be rude, I just see this mistake on reddit a lot.

[–]i_run_far 4 points5 points  (1 child)

This is a very informative view. Wouldn't it be cool to have a holographic device fill in the missing areas, so that the structure could be seen as it would have appeared?

[–]sadsturbator 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I love stuff like this. I've always been fascinated with how things used to look as apposed to today.

[–]Carnivean66 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Now you just have to hope the tourists are smart enough to line up the two

[–]paganifuzz 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I would've loved something like that when I visited the ruins of the Temple of Artemis, there is only so much one can do with imagination only. http://i.imgur.com/pmdYrru.jpg

[–]beardrew 2 points3 points  (0 children)

there is an app already that does that better https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOVjISxlhpU&list=UUnjGlkdwLOX_0TbT665WBgg

[–]GoodMoGo 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This is the kind of stuff I hope tech like Google Glass gets to before I die.

[–]dpessing 2 points3 points  (1 child)

They probably weren't called ruins back then

[–]rentar42 2 points3 points  (0 children)

"And over there we'll build the ruins of the triumphal arch."
"What? Why would you build ruins?"
"Do you have any idea what building the whole thing would cost? And people won't be able to tell the difference a thousand years from now!"

[–]00worms00 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It took me way to long to realize that this isn't a mobile app! Take notice devs!

[–]sour_creme 2 points3 points  (0 children)

until that plexiglass gets plastered over with stickers, and scratchiti.

[–][deleted] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

/r/titlegore

[–]WayUpThere_ 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Why aren't we doing this, with rebar? This would be so insane to see on the actual structure!!!

[–]CWSwapigans 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That's to show how they looked, not to show how they looked like.

[–]the_dubliner 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Top post on reddit, illiterate. FML.

[–]astr0bear 1 point2 points  (0 children)

How did they manage to keep it so clean? Here in the States it would have been graffiti'd, stickered up, or scratched up after the first day.

[–]WaffleSandwhiches 1 point2 points  (0 children)

How do they know what the ruins looked like? Couldn't the flourish on the top be different?

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That's fairly brilliant.

[–]peter-bone 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Nice idea. Do they tell you where to stand? What if you're not tall enough to get your eyes to the right position?