We Can Rebuild Them

Or we can make a CGI versions of what they would have looked like, in the case of seven ancient structures considered in this item at Forbes. Duncan Madden's article examines ruined monuments, temples and forts, using images developed by some technicians at Expedia.

In a couple of cases, such as pyramids in the Mexican sites of Coba and Teotihuacán, there's a considerable amount of remains to work with. Filling in some gaps and adding the finishing work that archaeologists are pretty sure covered them shows what they would have looked like in their primes, but the basic shape remains.

Others, such as the Temple of Jupiter in Pompeii or one of the milecastles along Hadrian's Wall, have to be reconstructed pretty much from the ground up. Seeing them as they would have existed when new-made, but still in their modern settings, is interesting.

The Luxor Temple, in the city of that name, has a large part of its structure intact but the animation again shows what archaeologists and others know would have been there when it was built. It's pretty impressive too, but I can't help but think that it looks like the kind of thing Donald Trump would have put his name on.