Digital Preservation of Pakistan’s Heritage endorsed by USAID‘s Small Grants and Ambassadors Fund Program, was one of its kind in Pakistan. The main aim of the project was to digitally preserve the historical sites of Pakistan that are under constant threat due to weather effects, negligence, vandalism, and terrorism.

The project was led by Dr. Murtaza Taj from the Computer Science faculty at Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), Pakistan. Through this project, LUMS introduced state-of-the-art 3D laser technology for heritage research in Pakistan. We employed innovative approaches to digitally preserve six heritage sites: Darawar Fort, Shiva Temple, Stupa at Jaulian, Masjid Khudabad, Masjid Wazir Khan, and Takht-i-Bahi. These sites were selected from three different provinces of Pakistan which speaks about the diversity of this project itself.

Atiq worked as a technical project manager on this project and led a diverse team of computer scientists, archaeologists, heritage experts, and artists. The deliverables of this project were 3D laser point cloud models, 3D CAD models of heritage sites, 2D virtual tours of the sites, and architectural preservation in the form of 2D CAD drawings. He also worked as a liaison with the partners of the LUMS like CyArk, Agha Khan Cultural Services Pakistan, Directorate of Archaeology and Museums Govt. Of KPK, Mehran University Jamshoro Sindh, and Islamia University of Bahawalpur Punjab.

The heritage data that was collected and processed under this project was uploaded on the project website heritage360.pk while some part of it is also available on the CyArk website. Some other important links related to this project are given in the Important Links section below.