International Workshop of CULTURAL HERITAGE PROJECT:

RISK MAP FOR SAQQARA SITE (ENVIRONMENTAL PROGRAM)

Enhancement of the organization and Capabilities to preserve Cultural 

Heritage Assets of Egypt

Risk Map for North Saqqara Site                                                                                               Georeferencing

Site Information System:

Egyptological Data

Conservation Data

Environmental Data

Archaeological Map:

Old planimetries and Recent planimetries

Bibliography of general site maps

Georeferency

Saqqara Planimetry

Risk Analysis:

Vulnerability and Hazard analysis

 North Saqqara Risk Map

The problem of the transposition of historical cartographies on those drawn up with modern topographical systems is particularly complex, if we consider that the former often lack cartographical accuracy and are always based on different projection systems; just think of the Porter & Moss, the most important bibliographical reference about Ancient Egypt, where neither the topographical references nor the scale of representation are ever mentioned. So, it was necessary to start a survey on field in order to best locate the tombs and the architectural elements mentioned by archaeologists who made excavations over the years.

To geo-refer the ancient cartographies an expeditious survey system on field was used. Such system is composed by a high level palmtop computer, the Compaq IPAQ, a Garmin III GPS system, the Arcpad software and a digital camera; during the surveying of the structures’ positions, data are directly visualised on the Compaq and directly referred by the GPS; the objects are then documented by means of the digital camera, with memorization of the photos’ main references derived from geographical information provided by the GPS. The data are later used to refer ancient cartographies, or a part of them, inside the reference frame (cartography “SURVEY OF EGYPT”, connected to the aerial photos’ photo-mosaic).