Cultural heritage is the legacy that is inherited from the old ancestors, maintained in the present and bestowed for the benefit of future generations.
Cultural heritage includes:
- Tangible culture (such as buildings, monuments, landscapes, books, works of art, and artifacts)
- Intangible culture (such as folklore, traditions, language, and knowledge)
- Natural heritage (including culturally significant landscapes, and biodiversity).
Conservation of Heritage:
Although preserving the old monuments is more expensive than building a new skyscraper, old monuments are important for future generations. Preservation and restoration play a cultural role. Old buildings teach us about the history that happened before we were born and promotes the respect for those who lived in different times and different societies. Architectural monuments cultivate pride of our past and heritage making us unique in the world. Added to this, cultural heritage tourism is used for, both preservation of regions as well as economic development of the regions.
Preservation:
Monuments are preserved by the following methods:
- Chemically: Monuments preserved from dust, dirt and drainage pollution by laying burnt bricks on roads, courtyards and other empty spaces as well as constructing proper water and sewerage system in different areas coupled with that killing plant on monuments by spraying herbicides. These helped in controlling the dust, dirt and gas pollutions, which creates adverse effects on the monument, it also gives a good impression to the tourists. Protection against moisture is required.
- Physically: To increase the strength of stones cement and titanium reinforcements are applied. Moreover, reinforcements are titanium threads, which are put into holes in the material like marble mass and locked by an inorganic plaster made of white cement. Rust prevention by coating with a less reactive metal as the rusting and expansion of the iron elements causes a material like marble to break and architectural members to shift.
- Launching awareness programs and campaigns: would help the people know the benefits and the importance of monuments.
Materials used in Monument Restoration:
- Repointing practices
- Mineral grout, polymer injection, anti-staining coating and techniques
- Portland cement mortars and grouts
- Lime cement mortars and grouts
- Pozzolanic mortars and grouts
- Epoxy resin mortars and grouts
In today’s competitive world, we have to conserve the monuments and landmarks to the future generations as achievements of our ancestors. Small efforts on our side can create drastic changes that will make the past available in the future.
The Heritage Conservation and its methods are to be discussed in The 3rd International Conference on Conservation of Architectural Heritage (CAH), which will be held during the period of 19th to 26st of February 2019, in Aswan.
To acquire more information about the conference, visite CAH-2019 Online Portal
