1. Coptic Monastery Multi-Media Database www.ambilacuk.com/coptic

2. Premise To develop a multi-media-interactive database: to include; GPS locations Media – film, audio, maps, satellite imagery Floor plans Full bibliography and references Current excavations Unique archaeological elements (wall paintings, architectural etc) Interactive satellite imagery (Google Earth) Eventual Virtual reconstruction

3. Advantages of the database A carefully constructed plan will provide a blueprint for the database structure, thus offering the maximum display for analysis To generate a rapid ‘search and find’ criteria Ideal when dealing with large data generated from archaeological excavation work and cataloguing of objects To locate (by elimination) ‘lost’ or ruined sites Data utilised to reconstruct Three Dimensional (3D) and Virtual Reality (VR) models – use of photographic and film documentation Utilising GIS to overlay sites – especially in conjunction with such satellite programmes as ‘Google Earth’ To generate reports - an efficient way to organise and display the data selected, offering greater flexibility and full textual analysis of a particular section of the database. Extension of full (pooled) collation of resources – bibliographic references etc

4. Caption sheet

5. Decimal – N - ELat-Long – N - E

9. St. Gabriel cave hermitages

16. Future work Current – and on-going: To complete a full list of known complete and ruined sites To input data onto GIS/satellite imagery – for interactive viewing – with full sources and references Stage 2 To collate and map the lesser known sites Stage 3 To virtually reconstruct (VR) from data within the database examples of monasteries and churches – this may be applied to a number of alternate periods and sites