Virtual Aleppo could one day help rebuild real city
Print Edition
After eight years of brutal war in Syria, the UNESCO World Heritage-listed city of Aleppo lies in ruins 鈥 but a vast digital archive in Germany aims to keep its memory alive and help rebuild it one day.
The Syrian Heritage Archive Project documents what it can of the millennia-old history of a part of the world that saw some humanity鈥檚 earliest urban centers and writing systems, but which has become a symbol of the barbarity of war.
The special exhibition which opened in Berlin yesterday features a digital treasure trove of photographs, maps and films as well as artefacts to take visitors on a virtual journey through Aleppo and other cultural marvels of Syria.
鈥淭his project aims to preserve the past and also has a vision for the future: to gather archives so that reconstruction can happen quickly,鈥 said Stefan Weber, director of Berlin鈥檚 Museum of Islamic Art, which is hosting the exhibition until May 26.
鈥淔or over 100 years, our museum has had a special connection with Syria,鈥 said Weber, a Damascus University graduate in modern Arabic, pointing to the 17th-century Aleppo Room, a wealthy merchant鈥檚 dining room that is a centerpiece of the exhibition.
The archive exhibition, partially funded by the German foreign ministry, is one of several such initiatives 鈥 alongside a digital map of pre-war Aleppo鈥檚 Old Town created by Germany鈥檚 Cottbus University and 3D models of key sites made by a French IT startup.
To create the mammoth archive, a German-Syrian research team painstakingly analyzed and scanned images of pre- and post-war Aleppo, then catalogued and compiled them all into a vast database.
Beyond Aleppo 鈥 Syria鈥檚 second-largest city and traditional commercial capital 鈥 the 300,000 digitized documents also include images and data on ancient villages of northern Syria, as well as the towns of Raqa and Palmyra.
To fill in the white spaces on the huge cultural mapping project, a team of 24 Syrian and Iraqi refugees will guide their compatriots through the exhibition in order to collect any information they may be able to contribute.
Germany, with its own dark and painful history, has plenty of experience with urban reconstruction, rebuilding entire city centers after World War II and again renovating decrepit urban areas after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Weber said he knows it will take time to see Aleppo reborn and that 鈥渋t will be up to the Syrians themselves to decide what they plan to do with their cultural heritage with what we make available to them.鈥
The war has claimed more than 350,000 lives.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 娌狪CP璇侊細娌狪CP澶05050403鍙-1
- |
- 浜掕仈缃戞柊闂讳俊鎭湇鍔¤鍙瘉锛31120180004
- |
- 缃戠粶瑙嗗惉璁稿彲璇侊細0909346
- |
- 骞挎挱鐢佃鑺傜洰鍒朵綔璁稿彲璇侊細娌瓧绗354鍙
- |
- 澧炲肩數淇′笟鍔＄粡钀ヨ鍙瘉锛氭勃B2-20120012
Copyright 漏 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
