The Outdated Metropolis, Gaza Strip – With years of warfare, humanitarian crises and a unbroken Israeli blockade, the Gaza Strip’s wealthy cultural heritage has largely gone unnoticed.
However just a few years in the past, Nisma al-Sallaq, an area architect and a passionate advocate for the Palestinian enclave’s cultural historical past, got down to change that.
Together with a rising group, al-Sallaq, 27, arrange Gaza’s first digital archive of historic buildings and heritage websites when she launched a multi-dimensional platform known as Kanaan in 2019.
With a web site, cellular utility and Instagram web page, the challenge gives guests with data in textual content and video format in English and Arabic, and gives a digital tour of Gaza’s centuries-old cultural historical past.
Named after the Canaanites who first settled Gaza 1000’s of years in the past, Kanaan has to this point documented 311 historic buildings and 76 archaeological websites on the Strip.
These embrace the Tel Umm Amer or Saint Hilarion Monastery, which dates again to the late Roman Empire and is taken into account an essential Christian heritage web site. The archive additionally paperwork the Al-Omari Mosque, a church constructed by the Byzantines, and reworked right into a mosque by the Muslim Caliph Omar ibn al-Khattab.
“Folks assume Gaza is only a humanitarian challenge linked to wars and a 13-year Israeli blockade and plenty of see nothing however painful scenes of killings and the Israeli siege topping information bulletins,” mentioned al-Sallaq, who hopes the initiative can draw consideration to a special facet of Gaza.
“They don’t know that Gaza has archaeological treasures, each above and beneath the bottom. Gaza is a gate connecting Asia and Africa. It has witnessed many historic developments via a sequence of civilisations,” she informed Al Jazeera.
As some of the historic cities on the planet, Gaza was dominated by the pharaohs, Greeks, Romans, and Byzantines earlier than Muslims conquered it in 635. It grew to become a part of a number of Muslim empires together with the Ottoman Empire from the sixteenth century till 1917.
The 1948 warfare that established Israel, reworked the Gaza Strip from a minor port and agricultural hinterland into some of the overcrowded locations on Earth.
An Israeli blockade imposed on the coastal enclave since Hamas took management in 2007, excessive unemployment charges and UN funding cuts have exacerbated situations for Gaza’s practically two million residents.
Division of labour
The core group behind Gaza’s new digital archive consists of al-Sallaq and civil engineer Mayar Humaid. For the previous seven years, they’ve dedicated their money and time in direction of the challenge.
“We began the challenge utilizing our personal funds in 2014, however after receiving an area prize in 2016 we expanded our work and group,” mentioned al-Sallaq, referring to a $10,000 award granted by Swiss-based NGO Taawon Basis.
A-Sallaq has since employed a gaggle of photographers, graphic designers, IT consultants and extra civil engineers to arrange the platform.
The group divides numerous duties together with researching, collating and documenting historic particulars, and filming and photographing every web site for the archive.
With a web site, cellular utility and Instagram web page to replace, the group has its justifiable share of labor to do.
“All the data we accumulate is uploaded onto the web site with a photograph, video and outline of the historic web site offered,” mentioned Humaid, who’s accountable for updating the Instagram web page “Kanaan Ps”.
Regardless of the group’s efforts, the web site stays below development and the cellular utility wants additional updates.
Overcoming challenges
Whereas the group is pleased with what it has achieved to this point, al-Sallaq mentioned it confronted challenges each step of the best way, particularly when making an attempt to entry historic websites that fall inside restricted areas.
“Though now we have authorisation from the ministry of tourism to conduct our discipline visits in Gaza, we are able to’t attain areas alongside the border [with Israel] as a result of safety causes,” mentioned Humaid.
“The border websites are situated underground in areas Israel calls ‘the underground metropolis’,” she mentioned, referring to a community of tunnels that Israel alleges Palestinians have used to smuggle business items into Gaza, in addition to weapons to armed teams.
Initially, Kanaan solely targeted on documenting Gaza’s historic buildings and websites. In recent times, the challenge has moved in direction of artefacts as nicely.
However to take action, the group has wanted a three-dimensional printer and digicam, which in line with al-Sallaq, Israel bans the import of due to restrictions on “dual-use” merchandise – issues that may allegedly be used for each civilian and navy functions.
As a substitute of giving up on the concept, nonetheless, al-Sallaq employed a mechatronics specialist to design a 3D printer for the challenge. “And he succeeded,” she mentioned, explaining that Kanaan can now doc smaller objects.
Rising curiosity
In line with Humaid, the challenge has inspired folks to assist shield and restore historic buildings and websites in Gaza.
“A gaggle of artists had been impressed by our work and began initiatives to rehabilitate among the historic buildings we documented,” mentioned Humaid.
Amongst them is the Al-Kamalia Faculty, established within the coronary heart of the Outdated Metropolis in 1237 to accommodate college students of non secular data and poor members of the group.
Named after the Ayyubid sultan, Al-Kamil, the varsity is a vital instance of the affect that the Ayyubid dynasty – based by Salahdin and that dominated components of Egypt, Syria and Iraq throughout the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries – had over Gaza.
Bringing collectively a gaggle of volunteer artists, Abdallah al-Ruzi, 38, helped restore the old fashioned as a part of an initiative known as Mobaderoon.
“We knew Al-Kamalia Faculty was an historic constructing, however with the assistance of Kanaan we had been capable of determine its precise title and historic significance,” al-Ruzi informed Al Jazeera.
Ruzi mentioned whereas Mobaderoon was eager on restoring different historic websites in Gaza, they had been combating a scarcity of funds.
In line with Jamal Abu Raida, director normal of antiquities at Gaza’s ministry of tourism, the 2 initiatives have helped help the position of the ministry in restoring and documenting Gaza’s wealthy heritage.
“Each Kanaan and Mobaderoon praise our position in elevating consciousness, regionally and overseas, about Gaza’s historic websites,” he mentioned, whereas complaining the ministry lacked the correct monetary sources to take action.
Abu Raida mentioned worldwide funding for Gaza’s historic websites froze after Hamas got here to energy. He mentioned donors have slowly began to indicate some help for the ministry’s work in newer years.
‘A lot-needed’ platform
Khaled Safi, professor of historical past and civilisations at Al-Aqsa College in Gaza, mentioned Kanaan was a much-needed platform.
“Gaza is in want of those sorts of initiatives, particularly as a result of lack of presidency consideration for this cultural heritage,” mentioned Safi.
“Gaza heritage wants greater than a digital archive and digital entry. The prevailing archaeological websites want precise safety,” he added. “For many years, now we have not seen any authorities safety nor restoration for archaeological websites and buildings in Gaza.
“I’ve personally witnessed the destruction of some as a result of lack of know-how,” he mentioned, explaining some had been eliminated as a part of development plans for brand new business buildings.
Nonetheless, the previous few years have witnessed a rising motion led by plenty of historical past and archaeology professors at Gaza’s universities to guard the enclave’s heritage.
Along with social media activists, the motion has tried to place an finish to bulldozing and digging operations round historic areas, together with the historic Tel Al-Sakan, which has seen giant components destroyed in recent times.
Regardless of the challenges, the group behind Kanaan plans to increase the challenge additional, reaching past Gaza in to different components of Palestine.
“Increasing the digital archive to incorporate archaeological and historic websites throughout cities within the occupied West Financial institution is the group’s subsequent milestones,” mentioned Humaid.
“We goal to make Kanaan the primary digital archive for historic buildings and websites throughout the entire of Palestine,” she added.