Colchester’s Roman Circus has been recreated using augmented reality so people can immerse themselves in the historic site for the first time in almost 2,000 years.
The chariot-racing arena was 450m long and seated 8,000 people, and is the only known Roman Circus in northern Europe.
Les Wilson, 61, who works in the highways industry, started creating a 3D electronic version of the Roman Circus three years ago.
He is the first person to have built a full-sized augmented reality model of the stadium.
“I started off building the Roman Circus and now I’ve got the whole circus built full-size, so you can view it on the phone, walk around at the spot and get an idea of the scale of the circus.”
Other landmarks Les has created with AR include the Balkerne Gate, which is the largest surviving Roman gateway in Britain, and Gosbecks Theatre, which was situated in Gosbecks Archeological Park and is the largest of the five known Roman theatres in Britain.
His creations allow people to scan QR codes on their phones to see the full-scale images of the landmarks, and he hopes schools will use it in their history studies.
“They could use it as an interesting aid for something they could explore — they can run around and find Roman pots and sculptures.
“It’s an ongoing project, and I’d like to pair up with an education authority who want to take it on.”
To view Les’s work, people can scan the mosaic QR code and download his AR file.
More can be found on his Facebook page - ‘Les Wilson Augmented Reality’.
