# timemachina

> A 360° window into the past. timemachina renders panoramic scenes of historical moments — places, years, and the views you could have seen — and turns them into both a guessing game and editorial reading.

timemachina is built by inithouse.com s.r.o. The image pipeline uses OpenAI gpt-image-2 to render 2:1 equirectangular panoramas at 2048×1024 from a historical-research prompt. Every published location is grounded in a curated source (typically Wikipedia) and reviewed for moderation.

## Site

- [Play](https://timemachina.com/): the daily challenge, solo mode, and party lobbies.
- [Travel](https://timemachina.com/travel): request a panorama of any moment in history.
- [About](https://timemachina.com/about): how the panoramas are made and the editorial principles.

## Blog · Editorial notes

- [The other people in the room](https://timemachina.com/blog/the-other-people-in-the-room): Every famous historical moment has two kinds of people in it: the ones we know by name, and the ones who held the door open. An essay on Cicero's secretary, Vermeer's milkmaid, and Tolstoy's argument that the named actor is a shorthand history can no longer afford.
- [What letters remember](https://timemachina.com/blog/what-letters-remember): A letter is the one historical document written for exactly one person, exactly once. An essay on what we hear when we read other people's mail, from Cicero to Pliny, and on what the slow letter trained that the fast one does not.
- [The witness who didn't know](https://timemachina.com/blog/the-witness-who-didnt-know): Pliny thought he was studying weather. The Sarajevo bystanders thought a young man had shot a stranger. The sacristan who saw a list pinned to the church door did nothing unusual. An essay on the historical witness who could not know what they were watching, and on the cruelty of hindsight.
- [Quiet histories](https://timemachina.com/blog/quiet-histories): For most of human history the loudest thing within a day's walk was a thunderstorm, a waterfall, or a bell. An essay on the acoustic environment of the past, the politics of the village bell, and what we no longer hear because we hear constantly.
- [History happens at eye level](https://timemachina.com/blog/history-happens-at-eye-level): Most of the history you can name happened at a height of about five and a half feet, and the people who lived it could see only what was in front of them. An essay on the bird's-eye view as an accessory, and ground-level imagination as the only honest way back.
- [Standing where they stood](https://timemachina.com/blog/standing-where-they-stood): Most of what we mean by 'historic' is geometry, not events. An essay on why standing in the same column of space is the only honest form of time travel, and what it tells us about the rest of the way we look at the past.

## Moments · place + year + panorama

- [Athény — pád města a konec peloponéské války — 404 BC, Athény, Attika, GR](https://timemachina.com/blog/moments/athens-404-bc): Duben 404 př. n. l. — Athény se po 27 letech peloponéské války vzdávají Spartě. Spartský velitel Lýsandros nechává za zvuku auletek strhnout Dlouhé zdi spojující město s přístavem Peiraieus.
- [Lakehurst — katastrofa vzducholodi Hindenburg — 1937, Lakehurst Naval Air Station, New Jersey, Manchester Township, New Jersey, US](https://timemachina.com/blog/moments/hindenburg-1937): 6. května 1937 v 19:25 — při přistávání na americké námořní letecké základně Lakehurst vzplane a během 37 sekund shoří německá vodíková vzducholoď LZ 129 Hindenburg. Z 97 lidí na palubě jich umírá 36.
- [Semipalatinsk — RDS-1, první sovětský jaderný test — 1949, Semipalatinský poligon (Opytnoe Pole), Kazašská SSR, KZ](https://timemachina.com/blog/moments/semipalatinsk-1949): 29. srpna 1949 v 7:00 ráno místního času Sovětský svaz odpaluje na poligonu u Semipalatinsku svou první atomovou pumu RDS-1 (Pervaja Molnija, 22 kt), čímž ukončuje americký jaderný monopol.
- [Edo Nihonbashi — obchodní čtvrť — 1850, Edo (Tokio), Edo, Musashi Province, JP](https://timemachina.com/blog/moments/edo-nihonbashi-1850): Dřevěný most Nihonbashi v Edu, pozdní šógunát Tokugawa, hektický obchodní den.
- [Wall Street — Black Thursday — 1929, New York, New York, Manhattan, US](https://timemachina.com/blog/moments/wall-street-1929): 24. října 1929 — Černý čtvrtek. Davy makléřů a investorů před newyorskou burzou.
- [Olympia — první olympijské hry — 776 BC, Olympia, Elis, Peloponnese, GR](https://timemachina.com/blog/moments/olympia-776-bc): První doložené starořecké olympijské hry, 776 př. n. l., stadion v Olympii s diváky a běžci.
- [Václavské náměstí — Sametová revoluce — 1989, Praha, Bohemia, CZ](https://timemachina.com/blog/moments/vaclavske-namesti-1989): Demonstrace na Václavském náměstí, konec listopadu 1989, posledni dny komunistického režimu.

## Feeds

- RSS: https://timemachina.com/blog/feed.xml
- Sitemap: https://timemachina.com/sitemap.xml