Never visited the Red Fort? The Qutub Minar has always been a distant black and white illustration from your old history textbook? You’ve only ever seen the Taj Mahal as the backdrop of romancing film stars?

Nothing can beat getting off that ass and taking a trip, but this is the next best thing! From the guys who gave us virtual tours of the Eiffel Tower in Paris and the Grand Canyon in Colorado, the Indian edition is the latest with ‘virtual walkthroughs’ with 360 degree online imagery of 100 nationally important monuments. Google joins hands with the Archeological Survey of India to create an application using its ‘Street View Trekker’ technology for the first time in India.

The project is being launched by Chandresh Kumari Katoch, Minister for Culture, Government of India.

“The aim of this project is to bring our country’s heritage closer to the people and to disseminate our rich cultural legacy among the youth.”

The aim of the collaboration is to generate interest and consciousness among the Indian population in general and the youth in particular in safeguarding the national cultural heritage of the country. Katoch is hopeful that the project would provide billions of people across the globe the experience of visiting heritage sites across a vibrant nation like India.

The monuments are being chosen are yet to be finalized; the sure shot ones include the obvious – the Taj, Qutub Minar, Humayun’s Tomb, Khajuraho and the Ajanta Ellora caves. Once published, the imagery will be available on GoogleMaps and on the World Wonders site, part of Google Cultural Institute, which began some time last year.

Google India said this was an opportunity for them to make these monuments accessible to people in the far-flung and rural areas of the country at the click of a button and to digitally preserve the heritage for posterity.

“With this, rural India will be able to see heritage online despite time and distance constraints. Information is transforming our future and with this we seek to bring more Indians on the internet.”

Rajan Anandan, Vice-President and Managing Director of Google India

“With this technology, we create an online exhibition in which we have authorised data to contextualise the view and the site evolves into story-telling instead of just plain viewing.”

Amit Sood, Google Cultural Institute Director

This is the ASI’s 151^st year, and in keeping with changing times this is their way of taking their mission of preserving and propagating the rich heritage of India’s past into the future.

Google India and Ministry of Culture had earlier partnered on the creation of virtual walkthroughs for the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) and the National Museum in the city.