Back in Time Travel
Travel back in time.
Stand on the Forum of Pompeii on the morning before the eruption. Experience the great sites of the ancient world as they once were, and find your way to visit them yourself today.
I have spent my life digging through dirt in search of other lives. Here we stand in a single spot and let time run, from a market day to the ruins you can visit today. Everything I tell you is sourced. The only thing invented is me.
Ada Falk · your narrator
The expeditions
Ancient sites
as they once were
Every expedition starts with a moment that changed everything. Pompeii is ready for the full time journey; the other sites will follow.
01Time journey · Tickets · Map79 ADPompeiiA market day, then a cloud shaped like a pine tree.Start the expedition 
02Time journey · Tickets · Map1687AcropolisA cannonball hits the gunpowder store inside the Parthenon.Start the expedition 
03Coming soon356 BCEphesusA man sets fire to the Temple of Artemis to become famous.Read the story 
04Coming soonc. 700TikalA Maya metropolis in the rainforest, and a Star Wars set in 1977.Read the story 
05Coming soonc. 450TeotihuacánThe Aztecs found it already in ruins and called it the place of the gods.Read the story The time atlas
What happened elsewhere
at the same time?
Drag the golden marker through 1,600 years. Each row is a place: bright where it is alive, dark where it is not yet built or already in ruins.
- 100 BC – 79 AD A city still inhabited
- 600 BC – 481 BC Before the Parthenon
- 480 BC – 448 BC After the Persian destruction
- 447 BC – 433 BC A monument takes shape
- 432 BC – 399 AD The Classical ensemble
- 400 AD – 1000 AD New uses, the same rock
- 300 BC – 1 BC A Hellenistic framework
- 1 AD – 149 AD Roman living spaces
- 150 AD – 269 AD The age of the library
- 270 AD – 800 AD A building changes its role
- 1 AD – 149 AD The city grows
- 150 AD – 249 AD An axis for the city
- 250 AD – 599 AD Life between the monuments
- 600 AD – 700 AD A centre in transition
- 600 BC – 199 AD Before the great temples
- 200 AD – 694 AD A Classic Maya city
- 695 AD – 733 AD After the victory over Calakmul
- 734 AD – 799 AD Monument and memory
- 800 AD – 950 AD An urban world in transition
The bands show editorial windows from our five stories, not complete settlement histories. Window boundaries organise the narrative; not every change can be dated to a single year. Photographs show the surviving condition, not the selected year. Present-day coastlines provide orientation.
Why trust us
Adventure with sources
- Real history
Every statement is sourced, and the sources are on the page.
- Fact-checked
A history teacher with a doctorate checks our texts; checked pages carry the date.
- AI clearly labelled
Our visions are marked as AI images. The “What is the evidence?” button shows what is known.
Images and usage rights
Pompeji: MatthiasKabel · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0. WebP, Ausschnitt / cropped display.
View from the Pnyx towards the Acropolis of Athens and the Parthenon, photographed on 20 May 2020. George E. Koronaios / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0. Resized to 1600 pixels wide and converted to WebP; no cropping or content alterations. Framing varies by screen. Derived photograph under the same licence.
The façade of the Library of Celsus in Ephesus, Turkey, photographed on 8 April 2015. Carole Raddato / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0. Resized to 1600 pixels wide and converted to WebP; no cropping or content alterations. Framing varies by screen. Derived photograph under the same licence.
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Temple I at the Great Plaza of Tikal, Guatemala. Photograph taken on 26 June 2015. Kaldari / Wikimedia Commons · CC0 1.0. Resized to a maximum edge of 1600 pixels and compressed as WebP; no crop or content alterations. Framing varies by screen. Derived photograph under the same licence.
View across the Avenue of the Dead at Teotihuacan: the Pyramid of the Sun stands to the right, with the Pyramid of the Moon at the far end of the axis. Photograph taken on 27 December 2017. Ralibreros112 / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0. Resized to a maximum edge of 1600 pixels and compressed as WebP; no crop or content alterations. Framing varies by screen. Derived photograph under the same licence.
Forum of Pompeii today: own photograph, Back in Time Travel. Forum before the eruption: AI vision (artistic licence), not a scientific reconstruction.
Natural Earth / world-atlas · Licences · Barlow OFL · Manrope OFL