Astrolabe Engineering contributes to Greece’s 2026 participation in Twin it! Part II with the 3D digital twin of Delos

The archaeological site of Delos — one of the most emblematic cultural heritage sites of the Aegean and a UNESCO World Heritage Site — has been digitally documented through an extensive 3D modeling initiative that represents Greece’s participation in the European campaign Twin it! 3D for Europe’s Culture — Part II.

Astrolabe Engineering is honored to have contributed to this initiative through the 3D surveying and reality-capture works, in collaboration with the Ephorate of Antiquities of Cyclades, within the framework of the ARCHAEORAMA research project.

A large-scale 3D digital twin of Delos

The resulting digital twin covers significant monuments and urban sections of the island, including the Sanctuary of Apollo, the Sacred Lake Quarter, the Agora of the Italians, the Granite Palaestra, the Stoa of Philip, and the early Christian Basilica of Saint Kyrykos.

The 3D documentation works were carried out as part of the ARCHAEORAMA research project — Advanced multimodal recording, mapping, documentation, and presentation system for excavation work — implemented through the collaboration of Dataverse Ltd., the Ephorate of Antiquities of Cyclades, and the Virtual Reality Lab of the University of the Aegean. Within this framework, the 3D surveying and reality-capture works were assigned to Astrolabe Engineering.

Method — aerial photogrammetry

The 3D model was generated through aerial photogrammetry. Field imagery was collected with a DJI Phantom 4 RTK UAV, and the dataset was processed in the office with Pix4Dmapper.

Some figures from the Pix4Dmapper processing report give a sense of the scale and quality of the dataset:

• Area covered: 36.8 hectares (0.368 km²)
• Imagery: 1,310 calibrated images
• Ground Sampling Distance: 2.76 cm/pixel
• Georeferencing: 9 Ground Control Points, mean RMS error 0.018 m
• Processing: ~7.6 million 3D tie points in the bundle adjustment, 0.091 px mean reprojection error
• 3D point cloud: 253 million points
• 3D model (OBJ): 8 million triangles (and decimated versions)

Public access through interactive 3D viewers

The resulting 3D datasets are publicly accessible through dedicated web viewers, enabling researchers, professionals, and the wider public to explore the archaeological site of Delos through interactive digital environments. The full official presentation by the Ephorate of Antiquities of Cyclades is available here.

Explore the 3D model

• Potree viewer → (potree.culture.gr — opens in new tab)
• Eureka3D viewer → (eureka3d.vm.fedcloud.eu — opens in new tab)

Video presentation

Part of a longer thread — from Delphi to Delos

Astrolabe Engineering also contributed to Greece’s previous participation in the Twin it! 3D for Europe’s Culture initiative through the 3D digital documentation of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, developed within the framework of the 3D4Delphi project. The resulting 3D model is also available through Europeana.

Together, the Delphi and Delos projects reflect the growing role of advanced 3D reality-capture technologies in the preservation, documentation, accessibility, and international dissemination of Greece’s cultural heritage. The participation of Greece in both Twin it! initiatives demonstrates the increasing maturity of the country’s digital cultural heritage ecosystem and the importance of collaborations between cultural institutions, research bodies, and specialized engineering teams.

For Astrolabe Engineering, it is both an honor and a great responsibility to contribute to the digital preservation of cultural heritage sites of such historical and symbolic importance.

Related coverage

• ERT News — Presentation of the 3D model of Delos by the Minister of Culture: read the article
• European Data Space for Cultural Heritage — Twin it! Part II grand final: campaign announcement

Working on a cultural heritage site, an archaeological excavation, or a monument that could benefit from high-resolution 3D documentation? Tell us about it — we’d be glad to discuss how aerial photogrammetry and 3D reality capture can support your project.