Civil Engineering and Architecture 11(1): 51-63, 2023 http://www.hrpub.org
DOI: 10.13189/cea.2023.110105
Digitize the Architectural Heritage in Egypt to
Overcome the Repercussions of COVID-19
R. Yossef
1,2,*
, M. R. Abdallah
3
, W. A. Nour
4
1
Department of Architecture, Architectural Studies Major at the Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt
2
Department of Architecture, Modern Academy of Engineering and Technology in Maadi, Cairo, Egypt
3
Department of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt
4
Department of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering, Tanta University, Tanta, Egypt
Received July 7, 2022; Revised October 21, 2022; Accepted November 14, 2022
Cite This Paper in the Following Citation Styles
(a): [1] R. Yossef, M. R. Abdallah, W. A. Nour, " Digitize the Architectural Heritage in Egypt to Overcome the
Repercussions of COVID-19," Civil Engineering and Architecture, Vol. 11, No. 1, pp. 51 - 63, 2023. DOI:
10.13189/cea.2023.110105.
(b): R. Yossef, M. R. Abdallah, W. A. Nour (2023). Digitize the Architectural Heritage in Egypt to Overcome the
Repercussions of COVID-19. Civil Engineering and Architecture, 11(1), 51 - 63. DOI: 10.13189/cea.2023.110105.
Copyright©2023 by authors, all rights reserved. Authors agree that this article remains permanently open access under
the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 International License
Abstract The world has faced a lot of unprecedented
economic and social repercussions in its modern history.
For instance, the spread of many diseases such as Covid-
19, wars, and climate change. That led to stagnation in
many sectors of development. As a result of these events,
the governments tended to mitigate the impact of these
repercussions by exploiting new technological tools and
techniques, such as extended reality, digital marketing,
and website development. In fact, the Covid-19 pandemic
has affected the tourism sector around the world in the last
3 years. And whereas Egypt owns a third of the world's
monuments, which represent the architectural legacies
spread over large and multiple areas. From this point of
view, this study discusses how to combine these
monuments in an integrated project through digitizing
architectural heritage on a website that works with
modern technology techniques, especially extended reality
technology to promote the tourism sector in Egypt, hence
increasing the national income. On the other hand, this
study also aimed to formulate a hypothetical vision of
how to preserve, document, develop and invest in all
archaeological buildings at the lowest possible cost, help
to immerse yourself in it either completely or partially,
query, and identify its elements and components textually,
audibly, visually, and sensually. To achieve the study
objectives, four steps were undertaken. First, the selection
of a case study and virtual documentation of architectural
heritage; second, a practical experiment was implemented
using the extended reality technology; third, a
questionnaire was conducted for the users of the
experiment; and fourth, an evaluation by statistical
analysis was implemented. From these four steps, a map
of Egypt for architectural heritage was carried out. This
map not only helps to revitalize the tourism sector but also
enhances electronic documentation, and the restoration,
and rehabilitation process of the monuments. Hence,
preserving the cultural heritage of Egypt.
Keywords Digital Documentation, 3D Documentation,
Publishing Architectural Heritage, Extended Reality (XR),
Virtual Documentation (VD)
1. Introduction
The whole world shared an overview of the
economic and social impacts of the 19 COVID viruses
unprecedented in recent history, where the specific
nature of each country's impact is bound by nature to
bear the consequences. So, it is necessary to use
modern technology, especially augmented reality
technology, to overcome these consequences or any
other obstacle, preserve the human heritage of
architecture, art, and humanities, and promote, invest
and disseminate. However, many challenges need to be
considered to apply the above. By studying Egypt's
case as a model, we find that the tourism industry has
been greatly affected by these impacts, as it has such a