The German capital has taken on something of a "second life", writes Kate Connolly in Berlin, after becoming the first city in the world to present itself in 3D on Google Earth. It's a warts and all spectacle. From the potholes in the streets to the inside of Frank Gehry's fabulous DZ Bank on Pariser Platz, the city has literally been given a new dimension thanks to the large-scale model.
More than 44,000 buildings in the western and eastern parts of the city are viewable. Most importantly 17 years after it was torn down, the former path of the Berlin Wall can be traced through the city centre - something it is otherwise hard for the imagination to conjure up when "on the ground".
Otherwise visitors can cast forward to the present and take a tour of the new Central Station or pop into the Reichstag, home of parliament.
Berlin pipped other cities to the post to be the first city in the world to present itself in 3D. The German capital commissioned a 3D model from '3D Geo', and then provided the model to Google free of charge.
Some would say there's no need to hop on a plane to Berlin anymore - saving you a fortune in emission offsetting payments.
The 3-D model can be viewed via www.virtual-berlin.de and saved in the "temporary places" folder in Google Earth. You will need the newest version of Google Earth. As Guardian Unlimited has found, access, its designers confirm, is likely to be slow over the next few days simply due to the overwhelming interest in the site.
