"Portals to the Past: A Guided Tour Through Virtual Palmyra"
Channel: OULibraries
Date: 2019-04-25

Portals is a first-of-its-kind virtual classroom where students, faculty, and subject specialists can jointly share a learning experience in a fully immersive environment. As part of this ongoing live event series, students explored the now-destroyed Syrian ruins at Palmyra with a Middle-Eastern studies specialist, Associate Professor at Shawnee State University, Amr Al Azm, Ph.D.  The remotely guided virtual exploration of the Syrian ruins at Palmyra contextualized the history of the Arch from its construction to present day, offered insight as to why ISIS chose to destroy the site, and discussed the importance of the Arch and Palmyra as a Syrian cultural heritage icon that can help restore a country and people. This video is an excerpt from the event held on May 8, 2018. Learn more at https://libraries.ou.edu/content/virtual-reality-ou-libraries