_Using multimedia in documenting and archiving the Islamic architectural heritage of the Holy Mosque area in Makkah City, Saudi Arabia

This paper aims to analyse and document the architectural heritage of the Holy Mosque in Makkah, Saudi Arabia (Al-Masjid Al-Haram) and its surrounding area. It focuses on the use of multimedia videos, photographic pictures and virtual reality technology in documenting the architectural heritage of the Grand Mosque area in the period following the new expansion and renovation of the Holy Mosque (within the last ten years) and compares it to the pre-expansion period. Muslims gave special care to building the Holy Mosque as they consider it the holiest place on earth. They did all they could to take care of it and develop the surrounding architecture to serve the large number of pilgrims and worshippers who visit the Mosque each day. The last ten years witnessed huge expansions to the Holy Mosque, several applications of modern design solutions, and developments in buildings, which led to the dispense of some of the historical architectural elements that have been decorating the Holy Mosque for decades. To preserve these decorations, and to shed light on the beauty of the current developed designs, they need to be analysed using photographic pictures, and documented using virtual reality technology, allowing interested researchers to study them in the future. The team of researchers for this paper consists of professional photographers, architects and interior designers. The research uses historic descriptive and analytical methods to achieve its aim.