Greece has become the 56th country in the world to have a Google Street View service, after the international tech giant officially launched its online navigation service at an inaugural event. Present at Google’s event were the General Director of Google Hellas Stefanos Loukakos, Google’s Director of Corporate Relations Dionisis Kolokotsas and the Minister of Culture Panos Panagiotopoulos.
Mr. Panagiotopoulos noted that “we have 12,000 archeological sites and 65 million archeological findings; Greece is a vast archeological park that people from all over the world must browse. Modern technology offers the simplest, fastest and cheapest way to highlight our country and its cultural treasures”.
Google’s Greek Street View began with the Acropolis Museum and the Monastery of Saint John the Divine [the only monastery, world-wide to be included in Google’s online mapping platform], with plans to expand and include many more of the 33 museums and archeological sites in Greece.
The Minister of Culture vowed to continue and increase the partnership with Google, explaining that Greece must take advantage of modern technology to further highlight the country’s unique cultural heritage.
