Destroyed and looted in the early months of Sudan's war, the national museum in Khartoum is now welcoming virtual visitors after months of painstaking effort to digitally recreate its collection.

At the museum itself, almost nothing remains of the 100,000 artefacts it had stored since its construction in the 1950s.

Only pieces too heavy for looters to haul off, like the massive granite statue of the Kush Pharaoh Taharqa and frescoes relocated from temples during the building of the Aswan Dam, are still present on site.

"The virtual museum is the only viable option to ensure continuity," government antiquities official Ikhlass Abdel Latif said, during a recent presentation........

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