Ancient Cities

Published by Sumeria, Inc., Ancient Cities is available on CD-ROM, with the text taken from the periodical Scientific American. It offers detailed information and photos for the four ancient cities it covers: Crete, Petra, Pompeii, and Teotihuacán. Price: $59.95 Windows/Mac on same disk.

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Ancient Cities is a beautiful way to look at history. The authoritative text from Scientific American combined with outstanding photos allows the user to explore places of the past. This would be an excellent way to introduce world history to high school students. The user may choose to get an overview of each city with individual slide shows narrated by Rod McKuen, or they may choose to read the text (audio read-along is also available) and follow along with accompanying pictures. Throughout this experience, the user may click on highlighted words to see accompanying photos or sometimes a slide show or movie.

The movies often include a walking tour of an area with silence except for footsteps crunching on gravel and possibly some haunting music. The Petra portion includes documentary movies with archeologists discussing the excavations. Another viewing option is separate slide shows for each city concentrating on their architecture, painting and sculpture. Viewers may wish to look at the time line. Maps that include all four civilizations are another plus (although they contain no added graphics) to give the needed conceptual framework for these ancient civilizations. [Top of Page]

My favorite feature of this product are the city maps. The user is able to bring up a screen with a map of the city landmarks. Labels can be added to these landmarks to identify the different places within the city. Shown here is a clip from the labeled map of Petra. These landmarks can be clicked on with the mouse to see corresponding photographs. In Pompeii for example, there are four different maps--houses, public places, fountains, and walls/gates. [Top of Page]

Ease of Use: I found this an easy program to navigate through. Each screen always has a contents icon (or the screen can simply be clicked on to return to the beginning) so getting lost was not a problem. When reading the text version of the story, the slides can simply be clicked on to advance or the hot words can be clicked to see corresponding picture while reading or listening. On the city maps a cross appears on places where a picture can be seen. The time line and maps are easy to use. Both text (full and just certain pages) and photos may be exported which is important for students. Key word searches may be conducted within each city for words in the text or photo captions.

Audience: The intended audience is not given by the publishers, but would be appropriate for upper high school students and adults. I recommend Ancient Cities to high schools with world history curricula. The slide shows and movies accompanied by mood making music will be sure to interest students in history. Its ease of use make this a perfect addition to the CD-ROM collection. [Top of Page]

Installation: I used this product on both Windows and Macintosh systems. Instructions for installation were given for both systems and was very simple with no problems. An icon appeared and only needed to be clicked on for operation.

System Requirements: For Macintosh, 6 MB RAM, System 7.0, 13 inch monitor (256 colors), CD-ROM (double-speed.) For IBM-compatibles, 486/33 MHz, 8 MB RAM, DOS 5.0, Windows 3.1, VGA display (640 x 480 at 256 colors), sound card, CD-ROM drive.

Product Support: The printed documentation consists only of credits, installation, troubleshooting, and product rights. The help screen, however, takes care of explaining any problems one might have navigating. The menu screen can also be accessed throughout the program for additional options. [Top of Page]

MacUser. Bickford, Carolyn. "History: The 50 Best CD-ROMs." October, 1994. Page 78:

     "Authoritative text from Scientific American magazine and
     newly produced video, photographs, interactive maps, music,
     and narration shed light on four ancient civilizations in
     this information-rich disc.  Virtual tours of archaeological
     sites reveal the architecture and culture of Crete's Minoan
     civilization, the permanent Bedouin city of Petra in Jordan,
     the pre-Columbian metropolis of Teotihucan in Mexico, and the
     Roman city of Pompeii."

See also: US Publisher Weekly (September 26, 1994) and CD-ROM World (September, 1994) and: Holzberg, Carol S. "Exploring Ancient Cities" reviewed in Technology and Learning, April 1995, Page 17.