YORK'S world-famous Jorvik Viking Centre today unveiled its exciting £4.8 million investment plans.

The whole of the current Viking Centre ride and displays are to be replaced by a new exhibition depicting a cityscape from later in the Viking age, including an extended re-creation of 10th century Coppergate and the backyards and alleyways leading off it.

New state-of-the-art capsules will also transport visitors back in time.

The centre will close from the end of October, re-opening next Easter for work to be carried out.

Richard Kemp, director of attractions for York Archaeological Trust, which owns the centre, has been working on the JVC2 project for five years.

He said: "Jorvik has been a tremendous success story, outstripping all expectations in terms of visitor numbers over the last 16 years, now having welcomed more than 12 million visitors.

"However, our aim is to educate people about the Viking age, and with the phenomenal amount of research undertaken over the last 20 years, we are now in an excellent position to give people a new perspective on life in the city of Jorvik."

Key features of the new Viking city of York will include:

A new time machine to transport visitors back through 1,000 years of the city's history.

State-of-the-art time capsules which will fly visitors through the recreation of the Viking city.

A new artefacts gallery where new technology will enable visitors to see artefacts displayed both as they were found by archaeologists and how they were in the Viking age.

More than double the amount of time spent in the Viking city than previously.

PICTURE: What the new-look Jorvik Centre will look like