Teaching Locals to Capture Time with Technology

The khan roadside inns are part of Project Anqa’s mission to preserve culture through technology. CyArk, Carleton University and ICOMOS joined together with funding from the Arcadia Foundation in the UK to help preserve them.

The project to help Syria protect its historic landmarks began in 2015, following catastrophes in the Middle East. The concept was simple – train local heritage professionals how to digitally preserve their beloved historic sites so they have a document of every detail.  

CyArk, a not-for-profit whose mission it is to protect culture in the digital age, ran several training programs and workshops in Lebanon in 2016 and later in 2017 the organization partnered with the UNESCO Office for the Preservation of Syrian Cultural Heritage.    

Once trained, members of the Syrian Directorate General of Antiquities and Museums used advanced 3D scanning and a measuring technology called LiDAR to record every last bit of the outside of the Khan As’ad Pasha landmark in Damascus.  

The same technology was used to take panoramic photos of the inside of this historic building.