Cultnat has taken on the task of archiving the country s rich past CAIRO: The center for documentation of cultural and natural heritage, Cultnat (combining the two words culture and nature ) is dedicated to preserving what is essentially Egypt's claim to fame: its incredible heritage. The center is located in the Smart Village on the Cairo-Alexandria road. Cultnat has undertaken an ambitious, but daunting task. The mandate is to accurately document Egypt's tangible and intangible cultural and natural heritage in the broad fields of archaeology, architecture, nature, folklore, music, photography, and Islamic manuscripts. *The center makes its work accessible to the public through publications, CDs and Web sites like www.eternalegypt.org that show different eras of Egyptian civilization. The Web Sit is impressive. It offers a virtual tour of Egypt. Visitors can navigate through the Giza Plateau, Karnak Temple, Qait Bey Fort, and Islamic Cairo through web cameras installed at these places. The site is available in three languages: English, Arabic, and French, along with text-to-speech technology. For those who visit the Cultnat headquarters, they can learn about national culture and heritage through the showrooms on the ground floor that include Culturama's hi-tech 180-degree screens, which take the viewer on a visual tour of the country s most notable cultural sites. Cultnat started unofficially with the beginning of the new millennium, Jan. 1, 2000, in collaboration with the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology. In 2003, it joined Bibliotheca Alexandria along with the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, "so we had two affiliations, explains Fathi Saleh, director of the Cultnat center. The idea was not conceived overnight. It had previously started on a small scale. In 1991, they started as a small unit which was part of the information center of the ministries council. At the time it was called Culture Ware. They began with small projects, but things gained momentum when Saleh joined a cultural project with UNESCO in Paris. When he returned, he decided to apply the idea on a broad national level. "I told [Prime Minister] Ahmed Nazif the only thing that distinguishes us from other nations is our rich culture, recalls Saleh. "The first step in preserving our culture is to document it, in other words, to know what we have. This is now Cultnat s responsibility. At one time, no one knew how many historical sites were located in any particular city, but now, as a result of Cultnat's efforts, there is an atlas with maps of historical sites for every city in Egypt including music, folklore, natural and architectural heritage in each city. "Our aim is not to attract tourists, but to organize ourselves internally, said Saleh, "and automatically, tourism will be organized afterwards, the country must have a reference of the culture and heritage that it possesses. Saleh refers to the city of Al-Sharqia as an example, it only has three sites that concern tourists, but a hole that contains three bones that date back to the Roman times would be a historical site that concerns Egyptians. "Our objective is not [to document] the well-known sites. We look for the unknown historical site so the government will recognize it and protect it, said Saleh. Saleh explained that the team that he works with consists of information technology specialists who work along with archeologists and people from the Egyptian Council of Antiquities to document historical sites. "People cannot imagine it, but we deal with our culture and heritage in a 'holistic' manner. As in we deal with it from all aspects, says Saleh, who gave an example of France where you find each museum such as the Louvre working independently. There is no entity on a national level that comprehensively deals with natural heritage, architectural heritage along with musical and folkloric heritages. The center has won several international awards for the best utilization of advanced technology in the field of documenting heritage. Cultnat won the World Summit Award during the World Summit on Information Society in Geneva for the best application of e-culture, along with the Stockholm Challenge award in applying IT in the cultural field. Cultnat's archaeological Web site EternalEgypt.org won the award for best innovative or experimental application at the ninth Annual International Conference in Vancouver, Canada. In addition, the center won the World Summit Award at the World Summit Awards on Information Society in Tunisia. Since the center is off the tourist trail, Cultnat plans to open two exhibition centers, one in October in the city of Luxor and another at the Giza Pyramids where light and sound is located. Saleh emphasized that Egyptians undertake most of the work at the center. "Except for the Web site EternalEgypt.org, which is a link with IBM, all the center's work is 100 percent made by Egyptians, whether it is technological thinking or the content itself, says Saleh proudly. Saleh's vision for the center is to see it physically expand elsewhere and to ultimately create an establishment like Disney World s Epcot Center, or alternatively an IT cultural park where visitors can come spend a couple of hours learning about Egypt in an interactive and entertaining way. Saleh also hopes that in the near future the center will produce documentaries about Egypt similar to those on the Discovery Channel and National Geographic. For more information about Cultnat visit www.cultnat.org and www.eternalegypt.orgVisit the center: Smart Village Cairo-Alexandria road, Km 28, Giza, CairoTel. (02) 534 3222
