The better part of two millennia after its entombment in ash and pumice by Mount Vesuvius, Pompeii ranks as one of Italy’s most popular tourist attractions. Ancient-history buffs who visit its well-preserved ruins today will find plenty to occupy their time and attention, but they won’t be able to see as much as they used to: less than a third of the Pompeii accessible to tourists fifty years ago remains so today. But thanks to technology, entirely new views of Pompeii have also opened up. Camera drones, which now seem to get lighter, more agile, and clearer-sighted every day, provide a perspective on Pompeii that no visitor has ever enjoyed before, regardless of their level of access.
The video at the top of the post takes a quick flight down one of Pompeii’s streets, which at first looks like nothing more than a faster, smoother version of the experience available to any visitor to the ruined Roman city. But then the perspective changes in a way it can only in a drone-shot video, revealing the sheer scale of Pompeii as does no possible vista from the ground.
The video just below, which runs nearly six and a half minutes, offers an even more unusual, dramatic, and revealing view of Pompeii, chasing a dog down its empty stone streets, gazing straight down onto the walls of its many roofless buildings, flying between its still-standing columns and pillars, and even following a drone — presumably with another drone — as it navigates the enormous archaeological site.
Welcome to drone day on the Adafruit blog. Every Monday we deliver the latest news, products and more from the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), quadcopter and drone communities. Drones can be used for video & photography (dronies), civil applications, policing, farming, firefighting, military and non-military security work, such as surveillance of pipelines. Previous posts can be found via the #drone tag and our drone / UAV categories.
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