Taking a Digital Tour of Knossos, Pompeii, and Acropolis

Virtual Tours

Virtual tours enable audiences to view specific locations and reveal their key tourist attractions and locations to view. Often, individuals will visit virtual tours prior to booking their vacation because they allow them to get a better understanding of the area and all that there is to do there. This week, we will be exploring three websites offering virtual tours to Knossos, Acropolis, and Pompeii. Each of these specific sites all have the same purpose, however, by analyzing their designs and effects, we can determine which site is successful and which have areas of improvements. Each of these three destinations are heavy tourist areas, therefore, all are equal, which makes the review strictly based on organization and visual components.

Out of the three websites listed, I feel that Knossos would be the best area to visit. When one first enters the site, we are viewing a beautifully crafted building with large red pillars and walls painted with interesting designs. In the small introductory paragraph audiences discover that this spot is in Crete and is one of the most important sites there as well. Since I have never visited Crete, I feel that this place would be extremely interesting as well. We also discover that many areas of this location are restricted from public exploration. This adds a sense of mystery, as well as the idea that this place is considered to be controversial as the initial page states. As one goes through the several pages of the tour, great fascination surfaces, well at least for me anyways. Also, there are tours dedicated to two specific courts for this destination as well. Which reveals how much there is to see. If I were to choose one of these three places for an exciting trip, it would be Knossos!

The most dramatic of these virtual tours would more than likely be the Pompeii one. I say this because it is the most striking in my opinion. When first accessed audiences are bombarded with way too many images and links. At first, there are only four photos of this location. However, then one realizes that you can scroll down from this. Once this is done, you see several photos. In my opinion, the organization of this website and tour is a little too much. People viewing want to see the most popular events and sites, not every single thing that this location has to offer. Although, this is certainly just the opinion of myself, I feel that others will agree with me. For instance, there were nearly 67 user galleries. No one needs that many to get a feel for the tourist site. This is why I feel this site is the most dramatic when compared to the other sites listed.

The most mysterious of these sites would be the acropolis one. This is not due to mystery of the location, rather the site. I’m not sure if everyone had this problem, but this site did not allow me to access any tour. Rather, when one clicked upon the virtual tour, they were taken to another page which just had numerous ads posted. These adds were directories to other sites for tours, however, when you clicked upon them, you were taken to completely irrelevant pages. This site is mysterious, because the domain is eligible for purchase, revealing it no longer exists. However, once one performs their own search on this location, a better idea of it surfaces. Although unable to quickly and accurately access this site, Acropolis appears to be a site I would love to view sometime. I was quite disappointed, however, that I was unable to view the real virtual tour that was suggested to us in this assignment. By glancing at the color and organization of this site, they would have offered many interesting snippets of information and a wonderful summary of this location as well. Like I said, it could either be problems with the website, or possibly my own server. Nonetheless, Acropolis appears to be the most mysterious amongst all the locations.

If I had the choice of living near any of these sites, I would choose Pompeii. Not only does the cite seem interesting, but it is also located in Italy. I have always wanted to travel there as well as visit. Italy has numerous tourist attractions that would make it always fun and exciting. Not to mention, that Italy has some of the best food, therefore, this location would be the best area to live in my opinion. Although, I do not know much about the other areas, making my choice somewhat bias. Nonetheless, who wouldn’t want to live in an area famous for spaghetti and pizza?

If I had the opportunity to show one of these sites to a close friend, I would choose Knossos. I think that amongst all of these choices, this one would be the most exciting to show. I believe that my friend would find the architecture of this place to be worthy of viewing. Not to mention the deep historical content available on this location as well. It is quite fascinating that through all these years, many buildings still survive. Not to mention, that it is considered to be Europe’s oldest building. Most of my friends are very interested in history, so I think this would fulfil their interest accordingly.

The last choice would be the Acropolis location. Although the tourist spot itself does not appear to be that bad, the websites errors sort of ruined it for me. I wish that the site would have worked better so that I could choose this location to take my friends or at least spark their interest in it. Also, I know that my close friend had already went to Greece back in 2014, therefore, they more than likely would not want to go back. Although Greece is nice, when compared to Italy, most people would choose Italy I believe. Maybe this is due to our choice of food and activities. Nonetheless, I feel that Greece is in need of updates and is not even comparable to either Crete or Italy. I understand that others may not agree with me, but I have the right to my own opinion. Out of all these choices, Acropolis would be my last choice to visit.