Tour the Sistine Chapel Online

Most of my students will not visit the Sistine Chapel anytime in the foreseeable future, but that doesn't mean they can't explore the frescoes and paintings of the Sistine Chapel. The Vatican Museums website hosts a fairly detailed virtual tour of the Sistine Chapel. The tour allows visitors to zoom in on small areas and details of the interior of the Sistine Chapel. Visitors to the virtual tour can turn 360 degrees to view the interior of the Sistine Chapel from various angles.










In addition to the tour of the Sistine Chapel the Vatican Museums host virtual tours of five other places and exhibits. Those tours are the Gregorian Egyptian Museum, the Gregorian Etruscan Museum, Raphael's Rooms, Pinacoteca, and the Ethnological Missionary Museum.

Open Culture provided me with the lead on these virtual tours.

Applications for Education
You could search the Internet and find many of the images that are seen in these virtual tours. However, the virtual tour of the Sistine Chapel allows students to explore at their own pace. Students using the virtual tour can zoom-in on images to gain a better view of the details than they would find in most images on the web.

Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
ArtsEdge - Podcasts and Lesson Plans
Blogs for Art Teachers
The Bayeux Tapestry Animated