A cool surprise on Google Maps!

Every Wednesday I do a #BookLocations post on twitter and my Facebook page with a little snippet from one of my books and a corresponding picture of what the location looks like today. Google maps has been invaluable in scouting out historic locations to get the details right in my books and while I was taking a look for my next post, I came across something rather cool.

Richborough Castle is a ruined Roman fort in Kent and is one of the Saxon Shore Forts (so-called because they were either built to defend the coast against Saxons or because they were manned by Saxon auxiliaries – this is debatable). The town serves as Hengest and Horsa’s base in my Hengest and Horsa trilogy. While zooming in on the ruins I stumbled across this panoramic picture which seems to be a computer generated reconstruction of the town viewed from its docks.

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I’ve never seen anything like this on Google maps before. As an author it is so cool to see this level of detail in a reconstruction of a location I have written about! I’m determined to find any more gems like this scattered across Google Maps. The picture looks like it was created by somebody called Peter Lorimer. I googled him and came up with another CG reconstruction of the town from the English Heritage collection. I can’t find much else on him but if anybody out there has some more info, I’d love to hear from you!

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