3D documentation of 12 monuments in Aleppo

The 7.8 magnitude earthquake of February 2023 and its aftershocks caused significant destructions of major cultural heritage sites in Turkey and Syria, including the Old City of Aleppo. Already weakened by years of conflict, it was crucial to assess the damages to plan the next conservation steps. Iconem provided its expertise in photogrammetry to rapidly document the destruction and assess the remaining structures. 12 monuments, including the citadel and its walls, the Jami' al-Kabir Mosque and its square minaret, the Ottoman Mill Tower, al-Halawiyya and al-Shadhbakhtiyya Madrasa were digitalized. The significant number of high-quality photos collected during the first phase of the project allowed to generate orthophotographs and 3D point clouds of six monuments from which architectural documents (plan by level, mass plan, elevations…) were extracted to analyse the damage caused but also to identify any areas of weakness. In addition, the French start-up delivered an in-depth photogrammetry training to a team of local experts in cultural heritage management.