Documenting Syrian Built Heritage to Increase Awareness in the Public Conscience

The Laboratory of Geomatics for the Environment and Conservation of the Cultural Heritage (GeCo Lab) has been involved in two projects in the past that led us to work in Syria Both of them were funded by the European Union: ‘Coupoles et habitats. Une tradition constructive entre Orient et Occident’, in 2007 and ‘Mare Nostrum. A heritage trail along the Phoenician maritime routes and historic port-cities of the Mediterranean Sea’, in 2009. As geomatics experts, we contributed by collecting spatial data and preparing graphical output aimed, through a multiscale approach, at documenting construction details, buildings and parts of cities that today are probably severely damaged, if they still exist at all. Different approaches were followed in the projects: in the first one, a top-down approach, the core goal of the project being to analyse the construction system of earthen buildings in villages in the north of the Syria, which was carried out by an interdisciplinary and international team of experts; in the second one, a bottom-up approach, the Mare Nostrum project aiming to provide a sustainable mechanism for the protection and management of cultural heritage resources, leading to an awareness of cultural heritage in the public conscience The project involved experts from universities, local public authorities, guides and tour operators, teachers and students, with the aim of boosting public interest and pride in the Syrian people’s cultural identity.