Page 1 of 3 Next  Dr. Mostafa Abdel-Bary Ebrahim Associated Professor at Civil Eng. Dept., Faculty of Eng., Assiut University, Egypt ABSTRACT In Egypt, sites, monuments and archaeological traces bear witness to a long history that goes back to the far recesses of prehistory and the dawn of civilization. Egypt is rich of monuments which make it one of the most famous countries all over the world. As everybody knows that one fifth of the world's monument located in Egypt. These monuments need to be documented in a way that makes it available for everybody all over the world to visualize them in real 3D and have all the information about them. This will be possible if we could put them in a system able to give the users all the possible information in text, 2D and 3D forms. Digital close range photogrammetry is the best tool to provide 3D models of the monuments in a real shape for an information system as it has a wide use in the archaeological field. This paper will illustrate the ideal digital close range photogrammetric method to be used as 3D source for an Egyptian monument information system. INTRODUCTION It is well known that the photogrammetric science is widely used in the applications of the archaeology. As it is a remote method of measuring from photos and collecting information about the targets, it is considered as the best way to be used to carryout different jobs in the archaeology field. Archaeology is defined as the branch of anthropology that studies prehistoric people and their cultures [Site 1]. There have been also multiple definitions of what archaeology is through the history of the discipline. Several of these definitions define archaeology as a discipline largely concerned with artifacts, in particular pottery, potshards, and arrow points, or with the excavation of large scale sites such as palaces and ancient pyramids. By focusing upon less obvious remains, the science itself has shifted from a study dominated by treasure hunting and half composed (if not totally incorrect) theories of culture, to a science which attempts to understand holistically the context and culture of a given site and the gross overall completeness of a culture [Site 2]. A lot of precious old cultural heritages remain all over the world. These heritages are of great value for human beings in both history and art. Some of these old cultural heritages face a crisis in that these are going to fall to ruin naturally and/or artificially. These sites become gradually worse by weathering, plants, animals and human activities. Appropriate treatments for these are urgently requested at present. Although various technologies have been attempted to preserve or restore old cultural heritages, it is very important to record the current status of the object precisely and preservation or restoration histories of them accurately. These records are necessary to monitor status of both damaged parts and restored parts of the target. A restoration researcher can make an appropriate preservation or restoration plan based on these records. However, precise and accurate records of an old cultural heritage are not necessarily available. Precise records of the current status of the object have been available by photogrammetric technique (Kenji Hongo, et al, 2000). The graphic representation of historical monuments is traditionally performed with the assistance of tape measure. With this purpose, all the necessary elements for its representation are based on direct measurements on the monument. These measurements are time consuming dependent on the conservation state of the monument. They can even damage the monument. After the Second World War, the conservation of monuments was motivated, leading, in 1964, to elaboration of the International Charter about conservation and restoration of monuments, known as Charter of Venice. Since then, several countries began to establish programs for maintenance of their historical monuments. The International Council of Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) recommended that each country should constitute a photogrammetric record of its monuments and sites, since photogrammetry is considered the main and more advanced method for surveying (Simone da SILVA * , Quintino DALMOLIN, 2000). There is no doubt that there is a great need to find out a way to document our heritage in a reasonable way which keeps it safe along with all its fine details. Much research has been done to preserve the world heritage for future use incase of accidental damage or willful destruction. Also, with the great developments in computing, the use of graphics and 3D modeling, different visualization methods have been developed to show our heritage to the people all over the world. Documentation and conservation of cultural heritage are being increasingly seen as tasks of national, ultimately international priority. Due to the digital techniques, photogrammetry now appears as more efficient and inexpensive; today ’s user-oriented software is easier to handle by non-experts, thus widening the potential spectrum of application in architectural and archaeological recording (Petros PATIAS, J. Uergen PEIPE, 2000) . In the past, the only way to document world heritage was to write the target’s description in files and then keeping them in a safe place. This method was not very effective since it was prone to accidental loss or damage (through fire or poor archiving practices). Since photogrammetric science has existed, the archaeological photogrammetry has been used in the field of archaeology for several reasons and applied in several projects.
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