CI PA 2003 XIX"' International Symposium, 30 September - 04 October, 2003, Antalva, Turkey 
essary. In such scales, orthophotos lose their readability and it 
is more efficient to use topographic maps as background. In this 
way, signature maps have been elaborated which show the ksar 
as point symbols and the colors correspond to the degree of 
occupation. In a similar way, the most important ethnic groups 
which have lived in the ksour are shown (cf. Fig. 4). It is 
remarkable to realize that for example ksour with arabophile 
inhabitants are much stronger fortified if in the neighboring 
villages we find a berberophile population. Very often the main 
ethnic groups are Drawa, but which adopted Arabic on the one 
side and the Berber language on the other. The maps are pre 
sented with the means of MicroStation and MGE, but were 
however elaborated with a special computer program in Visual 
Basic after the corresponding queries from the MGE databank. 
It is obvious that a great number of presentations can be elabo 
rated in this way, which is not yet exhausted by far. 
Fig. 4. Location of the ksour with indications of the ethnic 
origin of the population 
5.3 Slide Show and Image Database 
As already indicated, the photographic documentation of the 
historical monuments is of great importance for the inventory. 
In this context it is relatively easy to create a slide show with 
the help of HTML, the standard Internet language. Although 
such a predefined show might appear at a first glance to be 
quite worthwhile it proves not to be very useful for detailed and 
comparative analyses. For such analyses, one wants to call up 
the different images according to well-defined queries, imply 
ing the use of a database. Furthermore, an individual image 
does not help very much if one cannot simultaneously see the 
surroundings of the photographer's standpoint as well as some 
written explanation. These requirements can be met quite well 
using an Internet browser and Javascript. 
We initially conceived a standard layout for the image presen 
tation (cf. Fig. 5) which not only shows the photographic image 
itself, but also a plot of the ksour completed with the route of 
the photographer which also enables one to recognize the 
neighboring objects along with the images. All locations from 
which images were taken are indicated and can be clicked on. 
Furthermore, we show the orthophoto of the ksour and, in the 
case of buildings, their plot. Considerable attention is also 
devoted to the description of the image content, while thematic 
corresponding images are shown as thumbnails in a lateral 
field. The goal is to create in this way an image documentation 
that matches the various requirements. 
Fig. 5. Layout of the slide show with additional information 
about the photographer’s stand point and the neighboring 
images 
6. CONCLUSIONS 
The elaboration of an inventory of cultural heritage is a very 
important step towards a better understanding of a culture and 
promotes the conservation and the revitalization of these testi 
monies of the past. In principle, such an inventory may appear 
to be a purely technical operation, since the management of the 
data in a modern geographic information system allows one to 
visualize the data and to perform the necessary analyses. How 
ever, such an approach would mean that access to the informa 
tion of the inventory would be limited to a small circle of ex 
perts. Access is relatively difficult and hardly fulfills the func 
tion of providing a large circle of professionals with the op 
portunity of contributing to the conservation and revitalization 
of the monuments. Neither would the knowledge on the possi 
bility of the interconnection of information help very much. It 
is much wiser to place simple means at the disposal of inter 
ested users so that they can easily use the inventory to visualize 
data and images and draw their personal conclusions. For the 
presentation of the inventory of the historic monuments of 
Morocco, we developed a simple mechanism enabling queries 
from the database and visualization of the images by simply 
storing the data on CD-Rom and using an Internet browser to 
operate it. The approach currently being developed appears 
liable to satisfy these demands. It is however clear that further 
discussions are still necessary to refine its final form.