Digital Mapping for the Historical Villages Sites as Monument Reserves, a Geographical Study in Bassouna and Banawit Villages, Almaragha District, Sohag, Egypt

Abstract

This research focuses on ancient villages in Upper Egypt, whose rural built-up areas arose prior to the Islamic conquest of Egypt, and which existed during the Pharaonic dynasties and the Greek, Roman, and Coptic periods that followed, and its built-up areas have lasted until now. The villages that are not included on touristic maps suffer from severe neglect of undiscovered archaeological treasures located beneath their rural built-up area and its surroundings, which are vulnerable to looting and theft, as well as a lack of spatial databases (recent digital maps) that allow the drawing of digital maps showing the classification of these villages based on the probability of the existence of undiscovered monuments. Achieving this matter is the first goal of the study. Second, creating digital maps to classify built-up areas and their surrounding areas within the administrative boundaries of the villages based on the possibility of undiscovered monuments' existence, the maps include particular places where the likelihood of the existence of monuments is extremely high, are considered rural reserves. [Bul.