Academic Research Centers

The Center for Documentation of Cultural and Natural Heritage (CULTNAT) is one of the BA institutions stationed in Cairo, and is affiliated with the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology. The Center aims at applying the latest technological innovations to document Egypt’s cultural heritage, tangible and intangible, as well as Egypt’s natural heritage which includes information about the natural areas and their biological components. CULTNAT has contributed towards the documentation and dissemination of information related to heritage by:

• Implementing the national plan of action’s documentation program, making use of the most up-to-date information technology in collaboration with the national and international specialized organizations;
• Increasing public awareness of cultural and natural heritage using all available media; and
• Capacity-building for professionals in the fields of conservation and documentation of cultural and natural heritage.

As the world is getting more interconnected in the digital age and new technologies are becoming the important tools, CULTNAT is working simultaneously on various programs for documenting Egypt’s cultural and natural heritage.

In addition, CULTNAT has developed impressive ways to communicate its research findings to the public. Online, the award-winning trilingual website of the Eternal Egypt project presents a treasure trove for anyone interested in Egypt and its history. Equally impressive is the award-winning “Cultural Panorama” or “CULTURAMA”, the world’s first nine-screen interactive projection system.

CULTNAT has a set of exhibitions and projections where all projects are on display for public visits, and publishes material in print and CD formats. Most notable of these is the series of archeological atlases giving exhaustive maps, locations and descriptions of the archeological sites in Egypt, governorate by governorate.

CULTNAT won the World Summit Award (WSA) Special Mention in the e-Culture category, along with four projects from Armenia, France, Russia and the USA, which was held in UAE in 2003. CULTNAT was awarded the Stockholm Challenge Award 2003/04 in the Culture Category for “the Archeological Map of Egypt” Program in 2004 and 2005. CULTNAT was granted the Arab Federation for Libraries and Information (AFLI) Award for Excellence in Libraries and Information for the digitization of the National Historical Archives of Egypt Project held in Morocco in 2009. In 2010, CULTNAT received the World Summit Award (WSA) for the Best mobile-Content from the Arab World Region in the Category m-Tourism & Culture for the CULTMOB Project held in UAE as well as the best educational film award "Dandarh Temple" in the “Medium Length Movies” Category awarded by the AVICOM International Committee for Audiovisual and New Image and Sound Technologies in China.

More information is available on: http://www.cultnat.org/