The Best Roman Palace in the World

If you are interested in seeing the most complete Roman palace in the whole world, then you need to head for Split, a port town on the Dalmatian coast of Croatia. There you will find Diocletian's Palace, built in the 4th century for the Roman Emperor as a retirement home.

Panorama of Peristyle of Diocletian's Palace supplied by Panoramic Earth

Some home - containing army barracks, imperial quarters and servant sectors, the walled compound was capable of housing several thousand people. Central to the complex was the Emperors mausoleum, now Split Cathedral. While there, climb up the Bell Tower for fantastic views over the palace and rest of the city, as shown below.

Panorama of View of Split from Bell Tower of St Duje supplied by Panoramic Earth

Panoramic Earth forms Partnership with Aaduki

Panoramic Earth recently formed a partnership with Aaduki insurance offering both professional and amateur camera insurance through their services. In addition to a range of camera insurance and film equipment policies, Aaduki also offer Public Liability, Employer Liability (EL) and Public Indemnity (PI) insurance, a must for any professional. For the amateur, having insurance gives you peace of mind when taking your photography gear out for a shoot.

More about the different insurance policies can be found on the Aaduki website, or by reading these articles:

• Professional Camera Insurance, PI and EL
• Amateur Camera Insurance

We at Panoramic Earth are very excited about this opportunity, Aaduki is a strong and reputable brand and we are delighted to be associated with them.

Great Ocean Road Updated

The virtual tour images from the Great Ocean Road in Australia on Panoramic Earth have been updated. Viewers can now explore the road through various full screen images showing off the amazing coastline and rock formations along the route. While the most popular part of the road are the Twelve Apostles, other more inaccessible areas of the road are considered by some to be more stunning. It is just that the coach tours do not go there.

Editor favourites from the route include Loch Ard Gorge shown below.

Panorama of Loch Ard Gorge Beach supplied by Panoramic Earth

If you are on the Great Ocean Road and want a really good view of some of the sea stacks of the Twelve Apostles, then the best thing to do is to go down Gibsons Steps nearby and walk along the beach. Then you get away from the crowds and have a better perspective of the cliffs and stacks.

Panorama of Twelve Apostles from Gibson Steps Beach supplied by Panoramic Earth

Exploring Mallorca

Most of those who visit Mallorca this summer will inevitably spend almost all their time in their own hotel or beach resort, or walking around the shopping streets of Palma. Then there are the large crowds that are bused to some major tourist attraction to join the thousands of others. These people will miss out on many of the fine things that Mallorca has to offer, little villages tucked away in the mountains, tiny Calas along the northern coast, ancient forts and castles on the hills.

As this map below shows, Mallorca has so much more to offer, and it is worth making the effort to get out and explore a little. Away from the beaches, many Mallorca hotels are tucked away in beautiful surroundings with dramatic views.

Mallorca tour provided by Panoramic Earth. All rights reserved.

And here is a view over Cala Banyalbufar, just one of the small Calas that line the dramatic northern coast. Not as easy to get to as the beaches on the south, but incredibly beautiful and quiet.

Panorama of View over Cala Banyalbufar supplied by Panoramic Earth

Rob Bowker - New Panoramic Earth VT Contributor

Panoramic Earth welcomes Rob Bowker to our regular contributors. A graphic designer and photographer based in Oxfordshire, he has 25 years experience working as a a graphics and publications manager in the charity sectors. Not content with this, Rob continues to find new photography challenges, inspired by Hockney’s ‘joiners’ back in the eighties and the late Ian Hamilton Finlay’s treatment of text with landscape. More of his work can be seen on Photoshelter and on his own blog.

His foray into panoramic photography and virtual tour work started with a crude 360˚ pan using a borrowed K1000 Pentax 35mm film camera of a long-since demolished area of Bradford slum (which he intends to dig out and put together). Since then he has progressed through animation and film making to the VR panoramas, which, he says, ‘scratch the same itch!’.

Panorama of Wallingford Bridge supplied by Panoramic Earth

Rob, "really loves the way a flash panorama allows you to capture intimate and otherwise uncelebrated corners of the world. On viewing, the effect is immediate and compelling." Not an unusual response to 360 panoramas, and a sentiment voiced by his son seeing an early shot of Wallingford Bridge, who exclaimed, "Wow, it’s just like being there!"

Panorama of Queen's Arbour, Wallingford Castle Meadows supplied by Panoramic Earth

One of his current favourite panoramas is of Queen’s Arbour, near to Wallingford Castle. Rob considers this a work in progress and is moving onto creating fully spherical images, which he will continue to share on Panoramic Earth in the future.

Out of this World - Mars Panorama

After the Moon, the next stop in the sights of manned space flight programmes is Mars. If ever you wondered what that would look like, then take a look a this Mars Landscape Panorama which gives you a 360 view of the Red Planet.

Known as the McMurdo panorama, it was put together from 1400 individual images taken by NASA robot Spirit during the winter months on Mars when it could not move. So the next step is to put a person up there with a camera and tripod - any photography companies interested in sponsoring...?

New Large Map Views from Panoramic Earth

Panoramic Earth has launched a new layout for it's virtual tours on the site, using a larger image and map presentation, as shown below with a view of the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City. Now it is easier to explore the area around a given location on the Google map, and easier to see what other virtual tour images are nearby. Just click on the Large Map View link below the virtual tour image to get the layout below.


Whereas the normal map view presents the panorama next to the map and the text description below it, the new view gives a wider presentation of the image above a wider map. And you can still get to the location description and information. Simply click on the Description tab next to the panorama for the location data. To go back to the traditional view, click the Small Map View below the panorama.