Preserving the Great Wall with 3D Scanning

February 24, 2019

Check out that wall with 3D scanning services

Everyone knows the seven wonders of the world, right?  There is the Christ Redeemer Statue in Rio de Janeiro. That one would be perfect for a drone fly-by. Machu Picchu is amazing. The Incas were a smart bunch. Most people when they go into hiding they dig a hole in the ground and hide in the dark. These guys were much smarter. They found the highest place they could to build their hideout so that no one could see them. It sound a lot more scenic than the hole. Some of the other wonders are the Chichen Itza, the Colosseum in Rome, and the Taj Mahal. Finally there is the Great Wall of China. It’s perfect for an Evil Knievel jump on a motorcycle. Some people say you can see it from space, but I don’t believe it. It is definitely worthy to be among the seven wonders. Some 3D scanning services geeks like it so much that they are doing some 3D scanning on it.

A great project for 3D scanning

When the Chinese decide to do something there is not much need for debate. So back in 2014 when the department in charge of preserving national heritages decided to get 3D scanning services on the task of scanning the Great Wall, that’s exactly what they did. How easy do you think it would be to do a 3D scan of the Great Wall. Not too easy. It ended up being a 3 years project. The whole wall stretches for about 3000 Kilometers. That is a whole lot of wall to be walking and scanning. I sure hope they have a porta-pottie out there somewhere.  It was a big task, but to them it was worth it. Actually they didn’t have to walk the length of the wall. They cheated at little bit by using a helicopter and taking pictures. I shouldn’t say that is cheating. If they can do the job just as easy doing a fly-by, then that is just plain smart.

3D Scanning Saves the trip

So why on earth would they want so scan the wall. There are a couple reasons, actually. Their goal was to get that whole wall scanned so that many more people could learn about the it. Personally, I think using 3D scanning services to scan that wall would be great so that people could view it without even having to travel to northern China. If you have ever travelled in China during the vacation days, you know why not having to actually be there to enjoy it would be such a good thing. They have huge crowds. The other reason why they chose to scan it was so that they could preserve it. Getting a good scan of the whole thing could tell them which parts of the wall needed to be repaired. The Great Wall won’t be so great if it starts to crumble.

It would not surprise me a bit if other countries are not using 3D scanning services to capture the other wonders of the world. If they are not, they definitely should be.

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