The beginning
The heritage of Egypt commands an exceptional international importance and enjoys highly captivating worldwide attraction – as it incorporates the many aspects of human civilisations, and records its development over the ages, together with locally and internationally valuable and viable natural resources of renowned beauty. The cultural heritage of Egypt in particular has the singular distinction of its spectacular, and almost miraculous, colourful continuity over the span of some 7000 years.

It is therefore, only natural and logical that such an immense wealth of cultural and natural resources would be worthiest of preservation, as well as receiving the most accurate and thorough documentation, which called for the urgent need to establish a specialised national institution to carry out this honourable and pleasurable task. Thus, the Centre for Documentation of Cultural and Natural Heritage (CULTNAT) of Egypt, was created.

The 1st of January 2000, marked the launch of CULTNAT, as an integral part of the National Action Plan implemented by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT), which is the national body entrusted with the role of leading the e-Revolution in Egypt and steering the country, safely and confidently, into the IT age, and the most advanced digital world. The Centre became affiliated to Bibliotheca Alexandrina in February 2003 by the Presidential decree 360/2002, while retaining the status of being sponsored and supported by MCIT. Moving to its new premises in the Smart Village on October 1, 2003, CULTNAT was officially opened on September 16, 2004.

CULTNAT has a mission to document various Egyptian tangible and intangible cultural and natural heritage. This involves the implementation of a national plan of action towards the documentation programme making use of up-to-date information technology, in collaboration with national and international organisations. It also aims at increasing public awareness of Egyptian culture using the available media as well as building capacities of professionals in the field.

CULTNAT'S programmes
CULTNAT is implementing the MCIT strategy in documenting heritage under the section of e-Heritage and is conducting 10 programmes as follows:

I. The archeological map of Egypt The overwhelming number of sites, monuments and artifacts scattered all over the country and the ever-increasing pace of urbanisation around archaeological sites as well as environmental hazards, make the task of archeological site management real challenging. The need for documentation, protection and restoration of sites for future generations has become vital that could be best achieved with the availability of an extended archeological Geographical Information System (GIS), which gave rise to the archeological map of Egypt project.

The archeological map of Egypt offers three consecutive levels of information. The first is the national one, allowing the user to zoom into different regions and/or select sites based on certain criteria. At the second level, a detailed map displays the site and its components and their basic information. The third level portrays the in-depth data of the selected monument and displays a plan of the structure and an overview image. For some of the monuments, a 3-D model is displayed with a possibility of a virtual visit. A wide variety of products are also being produced, e.g. archeological atlases and maps of different governorates.

II. The architectural heritage of Egypt
Having witnessed a major building boom since the 1860s that extended to the 1940s, a number of Egyptian cities have a modern core contrasting sharply with the old medieval one and featuring a unique architecture combining European styles with local influences and materials. Yet public awareness of this heritage is still not fully formed.

The purpose of this project is to document the 19th and 20th century architectural heritage of Egypt, starting with the downtown area of Cairo as a pilot project and continuing with more parts of Cairo and other cities. The project comprises, among other features, a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) with an easy to browse database that includes extensive photographic documentation and serves a variety of users ranging from decision makers to architects and historians. The project also constitutes an unprecedented systematic digital approach and a series of thematic CD-ROMs, books, guides and other publications are produced.

III. The natural heritage of Egypt
The documentation of Egypt's natural heritage is a multi-disciplinary project aiming at the computerised documentation and dissemination of related data. The project involves the collection of all data available on the protectorates as well as the diverse habitats and their components in the country; including detailed information on the flora, fauna, geological formations and cultural features for specific protected sites.

IV. International joint projects
CULTNAT, through its International Relations Department, is collaborating in several activities and projects with various esteemed international organisations, such as:

IV.1. European Commission (EC)
Several projects funded by EC are as follows:

• Euromed Hιritage II Patrimoines partagιs: A three-year joint research programme on improving awareness of the Mediterranean region's architectural 19th and 20th centuries heritage.

• Traditional Water Techniques, Cultural Heritage for Sustainable Future (Shaduf): A three-year research project for the development of a data bank on traditional and indigenous technologies; focusing attention on the rich and versatile water and wastewater-related heritage in the Mediterranean region.
• Defense Systems on Mediterranean Coasts (SID-LIM): A two-year project to set a website for the shared databases of the participating countries on their costal defense systems; in addition to the restoration of an ancient defense-related building in each participating country.
• Strabon: A three-year joint project offering the Mediterranean world a coherent group of online information multilingual and multimedia systems dealing with the cultural heritage and tourist activities.
• Unimed Cultural Heritage II: A three-year project aiming to improve cooperation in the field of cultural heritage preservation, restoration and management by providing extended cultural heritage databases, an exclusive portal and training courses in relevant fields.

IV.2. IBM corporation
In collaboration with the Supreme Council of Antiquities and IBM Corporation, CULTNAT has developed, and is maintaining, the premier website www.eternalegypt.org, which uses the state-of-the-art technologies to illustrate a selection of Egypt's cultural treasures.

IV.3. UNESCO
UNESCO has been, and still remains, one of the main organisations funding several of CULTNAT'S activities and projects.

• Strategic Approach to Egypt's Cultural Heritage: A present state study of Egypt's cultural heritage funded by UNESCO and UNDP; for the purpose of developing a base for its proper management.
• The Scientific Islamic Manuscript Heritage: For the digital documentation of Scientific Islamic manuscripts available in various institutions, funded by UNESCO and began in September 2001.
• Al-Sirah-Al-Hilaliyya (Epic): A project implemented in collaboration with The Egyptian Society for Folk Traditions, which UNESCO has approved for the list on World Masterpieces of oral and intangible heritage.
• CULTNAT library: The Centre Digital library is developed with UNESCO's support; to be a model of an e-Kept library.

V. The Egyptian folklore
Egypt's living tradition is embedded in a deep and colourful source stemming from the rites of passage of various cultures during the millennia of its past. In an unprecedented attempt, CULTNAT is engaging in the never-ending task of documenting traditions of daily life that historically shape the Egyptian Folklore. The systematic approach to compilation process is building up the most comprehensive and inclusive library of scientific and audio-visual material. A theasaurus on the folklore of Egypt (Al-Meknaz) is being produced in addition to publish a series of books and setting websites on the traditional crafts and practices.

VI. The musical heritage of Egypt
The early part of the 20th century witnessed a strong revival of Arabic music and the birth of a national theatre movement that was, even then, considered a pioneering movement in the history of the modern art in the whole Middle East.

Music specialists confirm that the 20's to the 70's of the last century marked the golden era for Arabic music. Unfortunately, much of this musical heritage was lost, while the remaining risk permanent loss. CULTNAT aims at providing a better understanding of both our musical heritage and theatre.

The Arabic music information system consists of three levels; the first focuses on composers, lyrics, singers, modes, forms, and rhythms. The second compiles complete list of artists' works with original lyrics. The third is the multimedia upgradation that targets the production of documented audio-visual and multimedia deliverable based on the collected data as well as a detailed musical analysis of selected musical pieces by professional critics.

VII. The photographic memory of Egypt
The 19th and early 20th century photographers produced some of the most memorable and technically refined photographs ever made. At the turn of the century, Egypt and the Middle East as a whole became a destination attracting many pioneer photographers. Their works documented such vivid topics as archeology, excavations, local architecture, landscaping, as well as the social life and daily activities. CULTNAT is automating the archives of as many vintage photographs of the Orient as possible. Glass plate negatives, vintage sepia toned albumen prints, selenium toned silver sheets of the early twentieth century that stood the test of time classified in Egypt's unique photographic heritage database.

VIII. The scientific Islamic manuscripts heritage
Funded by UNESCO, the manuscript documentation project commenced in September 2001, with the scientific Islamic manuscripts available in various institutions and private collections, on the national and regional level. The joint vision is to compile an encyclopedic electronic library of the sciences and mathematics of the Muslim era at its climax, from Samarkand to Casablanca.

Other topics in the project scope include cosmography, physics and chemistry. The project is also exploring the potential of documenting microforms of manuscripts in special collections as well as creating a portal of Islamic scientific manuscripts on the web. The portal is planned to be the first of its kind exhaustive survey of "who has what" in the world of Arabic manuscripts.

IX. Eternal Egypt on the web
The website (see IV.2 above) covers the different eras of the Egyptian civilisation: Pharaonic, Graeco-Roman, Coptic and Islamic. It comprises descriptions of events, characters, museum objects, as well as historical sites, wrapped in a variety of attractive stories. The descriptive information is available in three languages; Arabic, English and French, and supported by an innovative text-to-speech technology to generate the audio narrations dynamically.

In addition to the information, 2D high-resolution images of the artifacts are displayed with a zooming capability for the visitor to enjoy the fine details of the artifacts. Virtual tours and panoramic views of many sites are produced, and a selection of objects are 3D-scanned and modeled to allow for adding missing parts, colours, or texture. The website is enriched with web cameras covering the Giza plateau, Karnak temple, Qaitbey fort, and Islamic Cairo; by which the visitor can freely navigate and get a live view of the selected areas. Tours are also provided for the Giza plateau and Luxor temple. These are accessible by cellular phones that are supporting GPRS or WAP technologies.

X. Culturama
Culturama is a set of showrooms at CULTNAT premises, in which diverse cultural exhibitions and activities are held using state-of-the-art technologies. The showrooms include:

• The Micro Gallery, with several booths displaying information and sample products of the different projects and activities at CULTNAT in heritage documentation. With new projects' outcomes, and the birth of new projects, the display will continuously reflect this growth.
• La Galleria, an arts cafe for an exhibition gallery that is monthly renewed with alternating artworks.
• The Folklorama, a specialised showroom exhibiting sculptured characters from the ever famous folkloric 'Helaliya Epic', the first Egyptian folkloric heritage added to the UNESCO World Masterpieces of the oral and intangible heritage. Digital recording of this Epic and its famous characters is also displayed.
• Star Riders is a showroom exhibiting replicas of astrolabes and other astronomical instruments, illustrating the pioneer work of the Islamic civilisation in Astronomy. Virtual representation is also an integral part of the exhibition.
• The Culturama, a showroom in which a variety of interesting cultural topics are projected on panoramic 180 degrees screens.

Special honors and awards
CULTNAT won two international prizes for its efforts in the e-Heritage: The "Cultural Heritage in the Digital Age" prize at the World Summit of Information Society held in Geneva December 2003 and the Stockholm Challenge Award on its important project "The Archaelogical Map of Egypt". The prize was given to Cultnat in a ceremony held a the Stockholm City Hall on May 13th, 2004.