Second Workshop on Digital Documentation of World Heritage in the Arab region for 'Dive into Heritage'
From 2 to 8 November 2024, UNESCO organized the 2nd Capacity Building workshop on Digital documentation of World Heritage Sites in the Arab States in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This workshop was organized in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture and the Saudi National Commission for Education, Culture and Science and the Heritage Commission in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
'Dive into Heritage' is a project supported by the Ministry of Culture in Saudi Arabia that aims at creating an innovative online platform to present digital data of UNESCO World Heritage sites in the Arab region and its related intangible heritage. The project, which underwent a regional survey, a reflection phase, and a mapping of digital data in the Arab region, highlighted the need to enhance capacities of youth and regional experts in the field of digital heritage documentation, digital workflows and data processing.
This second capacity building workshop took place in the world heritage site of Al-Ahsa Oasis, an Evolving Cultural Landscape and was led by a group of UNESCO experts and the participation of ICONEM, one of the project partners and the support of the company FalconViz.
The main objective of the workshop was to enhance the understanding and knowledge of participating heritage experts, and emerging heritage professionals from the Arab region in dealing with the documentation of World Heritage using the latest digital technologies. Participants learned during this training basics in surveying and data acquisition as well as data processing methods for 3D models of cultural heritage sites. The workshop included theoretical lectures (3D surveying, photogrammetry, laser scanning) and practical work in the field at the UNESCO World Heritage property of Al-Ahsa Oasis, an Evolving Cultural Landscape, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. At the end of the workshop, the participants presented the outcomes of their field recording work and data processing and were able to understand the full digital workflow and its different stages.
This workshop was combined with UNESCO digital documentation missions of the sites of Al-Ahsa Oasis, an Evolving Cultural Landscape and the Historic Jeddah, the Gate of Mekkah.
The project Dive into Heritage is part of the Programme on Culture and Digital Technologies generously funded by le Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia