A Turkish university has developed a project to help visually impaired individuals learn more about historic buildings and artifacts around the world.

With the aid of a 3-D printer, developers are aiming to help the visually impaired sense world heritage better with the replicas of buildings and relics from ancient mosques to Iron Age tools.

In the Museum of 3-D Printed Artifacts, which was opened by scientists of Anadolu University, some 60 printed works are accompanied with description cards in Braille and audio descriptions for each piece.

Assistant professor Hıdır Karaduman, one of the three scientists behind the project, told Anadolu Agency that they were inspired by international project "Scan the World". The project uses 3-D scanning and printing technology to archive sculptures, statues and artifacts.

"Museums around the world upload 3-D versions of their exhibits online and our university has access to that database. We decided to print the 3-D versions of those artifacts to make it a more concrete experience," Karaduman said.

He added that, in general, museums are "boring" places for visually impaired people and their project aims to enrich this experience.

Among the works that have been 3-D printed for the project are knives used in ancient ages, a Homo sapien's skull, a helmet used by ancient Macedonian soldiers, scrolls of the Code of Hammurabi, sarcophagi of ancient Egyptian rulers, statues of David and Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, as well as the pyramids and the Blue Mosque.