The German village of Cappel is home to one of the greatest historical music instruments. The ornate baroque organ here is the work of Arp Schnitger, the grand master of German organ construction who built it in around 1680 for Hamburg.

The village of Olympos , located near the ancient city of Rhodiapolis, in the Antalya region of Turkey, escaped a wild fire, on 2 September 2012.

Bill Wei is a senior conservation scientist at the Netherlands Institute for Cultural Heritage, in Amsterdam.

Imagine that a hundred years ago it was possible to take the ‘digital fingerprint’ of Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa and store it in an international database.

Temperature and humidity—two factors that influence corrosion— are routinely monitored in museums to protect the artifacts from the ravages of time.

Parchment, made from partially-tanned animal skin, has been used since the 2nd century B.C. and it undergoes the irreparable damage caused by time.

With only a GPS system and three other small devices, the Ancient Past can now pop up from the ruins in front of the tourist’s eyes. This system, called Archeoguide has already been trialed in Pompei, Italy, and Greece.

Guidebooks’ days are numbered. Tourist offices should be concerned. Time Out and the like should worry too. People will no longer need them for directions or to arrange their evenings, whether at home or abroad.