3D interactive journey into the Great Pyramid of Khufu

BBC News (Katia Moskvitch)

A mouse click - and a member of a pharaoh's burial procession turns around.

One more click - and the animated figure invites you inside the snaking, narrow corridors of one of the world's most magnificent structures - the Great Pyramid of Khufu, also known as the Great Pyramid of Cheops.

Peering into the screen through his funky red and blue 3D glasses, ancient Egypt enthusiast Keith Payne is gripped by the centuries-old story unfolding before his eyes as if through a time-travel lens.

"This is amazing!" he says. "I think that being able to use a 3D simulation tool to explore Khufu's pyramid is really a whole new way of both learning and teaching.

"Being able to pause the narration and virtually take control of the camera to go anywhere in the scene and explore for yourself, and then return to the documentary where you left off is a way of learning that was never really available before now."

This interactive journey, first presented to the public in a 3D theatre in Paris, has now migrated onto the home desktop.