Welcome to Roman Leicester, 210AD.

It has been recreated by a team of academics as an interactive virtual world.

From the hustle and bustle of the enormous forum at the heart of the city to the relaxing surroundings of the public baths, visitors will be able to take in the ancient sites of the city.

The Virtual Roman project was created by a team from De Montfort University and the University of Leicester and will be officially unveiled at the £21m Phoenix Square next week.

De Montfort's Dr Douglas Cawthorne is an architect and principal lecturer at the university's Leicester School of Architecture and is leading the first stage of the project.

He said: "This project seeks to digitally recreate Roman Leicester.

"The first stage, currently under way, is creating highly accurate digital models of the known buildings and artefacts. This will lead on to populating the town with virtual Romans.

"These characters will be programmed with all the social, cultural and environmental factors that would have influenced the lives of the actual people of the period."

He said there would be a computer game element to the display so people could 'enter' virtual Roman Leicester to watch and even trade with ancient Romans.

Take a tour around Roman Leicester in 210 AD

The project is the result of more than a year of work by around a dozen members of staff.

The team have relied heavily on architectural forensics to create the 3D 'walk-through'.

Using this technique, the researchers have analysed what little remains they have access to in Leicester.

By looking at the foundations left, they have been able to build up the ancient structures.

Dr Cawthorne said that just 0.01% of the fabric of Roman Leicester is left for them to work from, and that they have also used other historical sources.

He said that column bases on display at the Jewry Wall Museum, in Leicester, had been used to help build up an accurate picture of how buildings would have been constructed.

"If we know the diameter of a column base we can have a pretty shrewd guess what the column itself was like," he said.

"There has to be a degree of leeway, but we can be pretty sure how things would have been constructed.

"Like any really good idea it has been frustrating at times but, equally, rewarding.

"We have had to work hard to develop the techniques and develop the model itself, but the team, and George Watson in particular, have done a great job.

"I hope people will enjoy it and find it engaging.

"We have tried to create it in such a way that it will be easy to understand but, equally, informative."

The finished result will go on display to the public from Thursday but it has already caused a tremor of excitement to ripple through the city's historical community.

Laura Hadland, senior curator of history for Leicester City Council's arts and museum services, said she hoped it would help ignite interest in the city's rich heritage.

She said: "It will be fantastic for people to have access to, as it is very hard to imagine these things.

"Even when you are walking round the Jewry Wall site it is difficult to know how it would have looked and worked.

"This project will really bring these places to life.

"It is a really exciting project and pretty unique in terms of the technology, and it is great that it is right here in the city.

"We have a fantastic Roman collection in Leicester and people do not always realise that."