Combining data from two centuries' worth of images creates a new view of the ancient Near East CAMEL overlays multiple maps and images of the same area taken at different times to investigate changes to ancient sites and landscapes. The high-resolution Quickbird-2 satellite image shows Persepolis, the ancient capital of the Persian Empire during the Achaemenid Dynasty (550-330 B.C.). Taken in 2002, it has been rendered as an infrared false-color composite over a detailed topographic model obtained by the U.S. space shuttle Endeavor so that certain features, such as vegetation surrounding the site, are clearly visible. (Courtesy DigitalGlobe Inc.) By superimposing additional layers of images, CAMEL is also able to show features that have disappeared over time. On top of the 2002 detail image (bottom) is a declassified 1960s U.S. spy satellite image (middle) and a 1937 photograph (top) taken by Erich Schmidt, a pioneer of aerial archaeological survey, from the Oriental Institute. A digital composite of these images helped researchers see that an ancient water system (line of dots in the foreground of the top image) had been obscured by modern development. (See below for image credits.) Archaeologists have long been frustrated by their inability to visualize how ancient sites and their environs once looked. But this is no longer a problem with CAMEL -- the snappy acronym for the Center for Ancient Middle Eastern Landscapes at the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute -- a souped-up version of the "virtual globe" idea. CAMEL draws from a giant pool of