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.
Keywords: Islamic architecture, Islamic heritage, the Holy Mosque in Makkah, historical architectural
elements, Al-Masjid Al-Haram, architectural analysis, multimedia documentation, historical
descriptive method, virtual reality, architecture documentation.