A 3D video mapping show, narrating the biography of Queen Cleopatra, will be projected Thursday on the façade of Alexandria’s Qaitbey Citadel.
“Legendary Cleopatra,” is organized under the International Augmented Med (I AM) project by the Bibliotheca Alexandrina (BA) in collaboration with the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities. The show will start at 7:00 p.m. and will be repeated every 45 minutes.
“The event aims to promote Egypt’s natural and cultural heritage as well as cultural tourism; a sector that has been badly affected by the crises of the past four years,” BA director Ismail Serag al-Din said Thursday.
Egypt’s political turmoil following the 2011 January uprising that toppled former President Hosni Mubarak has badly affected the tourism sector; Egypt’s second most important source of national income after the Suez Canal provides direct and indirect employment to up to 12.6 percent of the country’s workforce.
Revenues from tourism represent 11.3 percent of Egypt’s gross domestic product.
According to the Bibliotheca Alexandria (BA), the project budget is € 3,060, 650 ($3.4 million), of which € 2,754,583 is funded by the program and the remainder is provided by the project’s 14 partners from 7 Mediterranean countries: Egypt, Italy, Jordan, Palestine, Tunisia, Spain, and Lebanon.
In 2014, The BA organized its first 3D show; “Augmented Reality: 3D Video Mapping Show on Ancient Alexandria,” that was projected on the library’s façade.
Queen Cleopatra, who ruled from 51 B.C. to 30 B.C., was the last pharaoh of Ptolemaic Egypt (330 B.C.-30B.C.) After her reign, Egypt became a province of Roman Empire that lasted until the late fourth century.
