GRAPHICAL REPRESENTATION OF AN ARMENIAN CASTLE WITH AUTOCAD 
M. Kempa, M. Schlüter 
Institute of Photogrammetry and Cartography, TH Darmstadt, FRG 
ISPRS Congress, Com. V, Washington 1992 
ABSTRACT 
In order to preserve and restore an Armenian monument - at 
the moment a ruin and heavily demaged by earthquakes - a 
measurement campaign was done in  Armenia/USSR initiated and 
supported by German and Armenian curators of monuments . Caused by 
the specific locality photogrammetric and geodetic (tachymetric) 
maesurements had to be combined for the task: graphical maps 
(plan-, side views etc.) for following static calculations. In 
order to enable the processing of both types of raw-data AutoCAD 
was chosen as graphic tool. This resulted in a more flexible 
handling of the input. Data processing, results and the advantages 
of the chosen procedure are presented. 
KEYWORDS 
Architectural, CAD/CAM, Terrestrial, Visualization 
THE ARCHITECTURAL MONUMENT 
The Castle Amberd is situated 
on the southersn hillside of the 
extinct volcano Aragaz about 2100 m 
above sea level and about one hour 
apart from Eriwan by car. It was 
built on a rock-tongue between the 
rivers Amberd and Arkashian and in 
a precipitous terrain. It means 
that the topography was optimally 
chosen for the construction of a 
citadel and an adjoining town. The 
origins extend to the middle of the 
century when Amberd served as 
summer residence of the Armenian 
sovereigns. During the following 
centuries it had an eventful 
history and it is supposed that it 
was destroyed for the last time in 
the 14 century. Since then 
castle and town have been deserted 
and dilapidated (s. fig. 1) 
figure 1: northern wall of 
Amberd castle 
  
241 
INITIATIVE, PARTICIPANTS AND CLAIMS 
Although the castle went to 
ruin it is a national symbol for 
many Armenian people. Therefore it 
was chosen for a common project to 
be realised by Armenian and German 
curators of monuments. The 
initiative to restore and preserve 
this monument is supported by the 
"Landesamt für Denkmalpflege" 
(office for preservation of 
monuments ) of the German state 
Hessen. To enable a concept for the 
restoration at first static 
examinations were necessary to 
prevent the continuous dilapidation 
of the castle and to lay further 
work on a solid basis. our 
institute was charged to evaluate 
the plans for the static studies. 
Besides that a complete 
documentation of the castle for 
art-historical and building- 
historical examinations should be 
provided Burg Amberd in Armenien 
1990, Kempa 1991. 
EQUIPMENT AND OUTDOOR WORK 
To enable a very flexible data 
collection outside and having 
regard to the mountainous 
topography the following strategy 
was developed: a combination of 
geodetic and photogrammetric 
measuring techniques  whereat the 
following data processing with 
AutoCAD had to be taken into 
consideration.