The International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences. Vol. XXXVII. Part B7. Beijing 2008 
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Figure 11. Photo-realistic and detailed 3D model of the 
“German Fountain” (3ds max) 
Figure 12. Perspective Scene of the “German Fountain” and the 
Sultan Ahmet Mosque (3ds max) 
Thus far the following landmarks have been modelled in 3D: 
German Fountain and the Sultan Ahmet Mosque (Blue Mosque), 
a historic grave located in the garden of the Suleymaniye 
Mosque (Fig. 13), and the fountain of the Yildiz palace. 
Currently, the 3D modelling is focussed on the Suleymaniye 
Mosque (Fig. 14). 
Figure 13. Photo-realistic and detailed 3D model of a historic 
grave located in the garden of the Suleymaniye Mosque 
However, one major problem in modelling and visualisation is 
still not solved sufficiently: The data volume of the CAD data 
for the 3D models (e.g. 60 MB DWG file for the German 
Fountain) is far too large for many visualisation applications 
due to the high level of detail. This problem might be solved in 
the future by better computer performance. For (interactive) 
visualisation of the 3D models on the internet an export of 
photo-realistic models from 3ds max to standard file formats 
(e.g. VRML) is required. Hence, 3D models with reduced data 
volumes for better visualisation performance on the internet 
must be generated. Which is the most appropriate file formats 
for visualisation of the 3D models and for data exchange? There 
is still potential for the optimisation of the CAD data by using 
geometric features instead of poly-meshes. 
Figure 14. Wireframe of the Suleymaniye Mosque 3D model 
7. CONCLUSION AND OUTLOOK 
Since 2006 BIMTAS has been tackling a large project on the 
architectural documentation of Istanbul’s Historic Peninsula 
including almost 50,000 buildings (11,000 of these buildings 
are historic) with an area of 1500ha. In the frame of this project, 
the company established different production groups (e.g. laser 
scanning and geodesy group, and groups for façade mapping, 
roof mapping and 3D modelling) with highly educated and 
trained staff (geodesists and architects), who were able to tune 
and to optimise the production lines for efficient cultural 
heritage documentation. In order to run such a huge project, 
modem technologies (hardware and software) were required. 
With the Historic Peninsula project BIMTAS was able to build 
up a modem production environment with high-end technology 
and sophisticated personnel, which could efficiently perform 
3D mapping of building facades and roofs as a data base for the 
subsequent 3D modelling. The data acquisition of all the 
building facades in the streets of the Historic Peninsula was 
finished in less than three months by mobile terrestrial laser 
scanning. However, processing and 3D mapping of the laser 
scanning data are still continuing. A similar project is reported 
by Frueh and Zahkor,(2003), who also used ground-based data