Theban Mapping Project
http://www.thebanmappingproject.com/
= must have
Online Resource
FREE

This online multimedia project offers extensive resources and information on the Valley of the Kings in Egypt, and of the many archaeological discoveries made in this region.

Through the home page of the site a visitor can access immediately the Atlas of the Valley of the Kings which is an extremely effective and well designed interface to much of the content available at this site.

Many streaming movies containing still images, photos and maps provide an excellent visual support to the site visitor. As a great usability plus each movie is complemented by a text transcript that contains the full text of the narration.

The Atlas panel is by itself a masterpiece of navigation and interaction design. This panel offers access to three different content types: a) Overview, b) Descriptions and c) Maps and Plans. This organization allows the visitor to easily switch content views while exploring the different archaeological sites made available.

The Overview tabbed panel offers the main navigation through the content. Its main display area is occupied by an interactive zoomable map, complemented by a picture panel and a text area.

By hovering on this interactive zoomable map which is the core part of the Atlas, key locations are highlighted, the name of the location displayed and a picture relative to the location is also shown.

By clicking the zoomable map one can move to different zoom levels and gradually explore all of the Valley of the Kings main sites. Simple and elegant controls above the map allow the user to go back, forward or to move sequentially through the map key locations.

In the Description area a technical illustration is shown along with an exhaustive text description. Images and other media related to the selected archaeological area are available through a secondary tab, as well as related links on the topic.

While in the Maps and Plans tabbed section the user can freely zoom on the technical drawings without ever loosing quality. A simple and effective measuring tool is made available to the user, which allows measuring of the drawn items in real scale.

Units of measurement can be changed, and distance and angle of your measurements is elegantly displayed on the lower right area.

Finally a 3D tomb tour section well complements the very effective and nicely laid out content available in the other sections. The 3D section allows a 3D navigation of a wireframe of the large tomb construction.

The user can attend passively at this 3D journey or directly interact with the map by clicking on the navigation reference available in this section.

A must see for any serious interface designer. Having a good and reliable Internet connection (33.6 Kbps or better) is recommended.