Celebrating the Arab Cultural Heritage Day
26-02-2017
On Sunday, February 26, the Center for Documentation of Cultural and Natural Heritage participated in the celebrations of the first Arab Heritage Day held in the Arab League Headquarters in Cairo. The attendees included the Deputy Secretary General of the Arab League, the Minister of Awqaf, the Minister of Culture, as well as representatives of the Ministries of Antiquities and Tourism and representative of the Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar. The ceremony was also attended by a number of professors specialized in the field of heritage and representatives of the UNESCO, ALESCO, ISESCO, the Arab Parliament, and civil society organizations. CULTNAT’s participation came in the form of a speech on the contributions of the Arab and Islamic Civilization in astronomy delivered by Dr. Fathy Saleh, CULTNAT’s founder and honorary director, and another on the role of modern technologies in the documentation and spreading of heritage by Mohamed Farouk, the Center’s director. In addition, Mohamed Ismael, CULTNAT’s acting deputy director and the member of the board of the National Committee of the International Council of Museums, stated that CULTNAT had also participated in the celebration’s exhibit through the viewing of a short film about the astronomical contributions of Al Sufi Al-Razi, as mentioned in his manuscript “Pictures of the Forty Eight Planets”. Ismael also added that the Center plans to introduce the various aspects of Egyptian and Arab heritage through the most recent means of dissemination in order to raise public awareness about its value via different channels in collaboration with the bodies working in the field of preserving and spreading heritage.