Making the Past Visible for the Future: Map of the Old City of Aleppo

Abstract

This chapter introduces the aim, process and outcome of the first phase of producing the Map of the Old City of Aleppo as part of the Aleppo in Exile Project. The project was outlined to generate a base tool to be employed for directing the reconstruction processes towards respecting and enhancing the urban values and integrity of the Old City. Taking into account the richness of Aleppo as a cultural palimpsest of various historic layers, and with a view to the destruction of an ongoing war and an incompatible post-war planning and development process, the project aimed at filling the gap in the existing documentation and analysis on the Old City of Aleppo, by generating a comprehensive inventory of its pre-war urban structure in its totality and complexity. The project, although thematically closer to the World Heritage Convention, emphasizes the relevance of the Memory of the World Programme, by illustrating the role documents and documentary heritage can play in the context of built heritage.