This holiday season, tourists at the Acropolis can witness the resolution of one of the world’s most heated debates about cultural heritage. All they need is a smartphone. Visitors can now zoom in and out of the ancient Greek site with a digital overlay showing what it once looked like. It contains a collection of marble sculptures that were removed from the Parthenon more than 200 years ago and are now on display at the British Museum in London. Greece requested their return.

Now an app backed by Greece’s Ministry of Culture allows visitors to point their phones at the Parthenon, and statues located in London appear on the monument as archaeologists believe they appeared 2,500 years ago.

Other lesser-known features also emerge: Many statues on the Acropolis were painted in bright colours. The statue of the goddess Athena in the main chamber of the Parthenon also stood over a shallow pool of water.

“It’s really impressive… I’ve only seen this kind of technology before at the dentist,” said Shriya Parsotam Chitnavis, a tourist from London, after checking out the app on a hot day atop Greece’s Acropolis. The most popular archaeological site.

“I didn’t know much about (the Acropolis) and had to be persuaded to come here. “Seeing that made it even more interesting to see it in color,” he said. “I’m more into visualization, so this interaction really helped me understand that.”

Virtual restoration works anywhere and can save some visitors from crowded uphill hikes and long waits to see iconic monuments up close. This could also help the country’s campaign to make Greek cities year-round destinations.

Tourism, which is vital to the Greek economy, has soared in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic this summer, even as forest fires chased away visitors from the island of Rhodes and hit other areas. According to the Bank of Greece, the number of visitors between January and July reached 16.2 million, an increase of 21.9% compared to the previous year. Revenue rose just over 20% to 10.3 billion euros ($10.8 billion).

Called Chronos after the mythological king of the Titans and the Greek word for time, the app uses augmented reality to display an ancient impression of a place on the screen to match the appearance of the real world as you move around. Augmented reality is reaching consumers after a long wait and is expected to impact a wide range of professional and leisure activities.

Medical surgery, military training and specialized equipment repair, as well as retail sales and live events, are the focus of major technology companies investing in a lucrative future in comprehensive services. Tech giants like Meta and Apple are touting VR headsets that can cost thousands of dollars.

The high price will keep mobile devices as the primary augmented reality platform for consumers for some time to come, according to Maria Engberg, co-author of Media Reality, a book on augmented and virtual reality. Services for travelers will soon offer a more integrated experience, allowing more options for sharing and overlaying archival photos and videos during tours, he said.

“AR and VR are lagging behind other things we consume digitally, such as games and movies,” said Engberg, an associate professor of computer science and media technology at Malmö University in Sweden.

“I think we’ll see a really interesting customer experience over the next few years as more and more content from museums and archives becomes digital,” he said.

The Greek Ministry of Culture and the National Tourism Authority have been slow but enthusiastic adopters of the technology. Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, the popular video game that allows players to travel through ancient Athens, has been used to attract young travelers from China to Greece through a government-run photo contest. Microsoft partnered with the Ministry of Culture two years ago to launch an immersive digital tour of ancient Olympia, the birthplace of the Olympic Games in Southern Greece.

Culture Minister Lina Mendoni said the innovations, in addition to the recent installation of ramps and non-slip walkways, will increase the accessibility of Greece’s ancient monuments.

“Affordability is extending into the digital space,” Mendoni said at the pre-launch of the Chronos app in May. “Real visitors and virtual visitors around the world can share historical information.”

Developers of the free app, developed by Greek telecommunications provider Cosmote, say they hope to improve existing features, including the AI-powered Clio virtual guide.

“With the development of technology and networks with better bandwidth and lower latency, mobile devices will be able to download better content,” said Panagiotis Gabrielides, a senior official of a telecommunications company involved in the project.

Virtual reconstructions using Chronos also include three other monuments on the Acropolis, the adjacent Roman theater and parts of the Acropolis Museum built at the foot of the cliff.