‘Machu Picchu 360’, an interactive virtual reality experience exploring Peru’s world-renowned Machu Picchu and its surrounding sites, has been launched by Cypha Interactive.

A remote citadel built at the peak of the Inca Empire in the 15th century and lost to the world until the 20th century, Machu Picchu, a UNESCO World Heritage Site (one of only 35 mixed natural and cultural heritage sites worldwide), is the world’s most famous archaeological site; but it remains largely inaccessible to the outside world.

Cypha Interactive’s VR and 360-degree video experience allows users to explore Machu Picchu, the sweeping vistas of the Sacred Valley and Urubamba River that it overlooks, and the soaring heights of the mountain Huayna Picchu.

The experience features an explorable 3D model of Machu Picchu with interactive ‘places of interest’, which offer information regarding the historical significance of the site and are themselves seamlessly explorable.

To capture the spherical, 4K quality, 360-degree video, Cypha Interactive used a custom dual camera rig developed by 360fly(R) as well as a separate audio recorder during filming at Machu Picchu. A significant amount of post-production work was required to stitch footage from the two cameras together, as well as to remove camera equipment and shadows from the shots.

The Cypha Interactive team travelled to the Peruvian Andes in 2016 to capture the footage that the experience is built around.

“Machu Picchu is one of those places that just cannot be captured through photography; it’s multisensory. If you’re looking at one thing, there is something worth looking at right behind you, so it made sense to try and capture it in a 360-degree VR experience,” said Daniel Christos, Managing Director of Cypha Interactive.

“We also wanted to communicate the significance of so many of the sites at this surreal location. It’s a difficult place to get to but one that we felt should be experienced by everyone. We wanted to be able to bring that experience to those that are unable to get there. We partnered with the solutions team at 360Fly to help bring this experience to life.”

Virtual Reality and 360 video allows a person to experience, move through and interact with digital representations of the real world, and has gone through a period of growth in recent years, with creators exploring both style and format. “Use cases such as virtual tours continue to be a strong growth driver for this category," states Matt Gordon, Head of Strategic Partnerships and Brand Integrations at 360fly(R).

View the experience here.