失われたエルサレム旧市街の地区、３Ｄアプリで再現へ

【エルサレムＡＦＰ＝時事】イスラエルが５５年以上前に破壊したエルサレム旧市街のモロッコ人居住区「ムグラビ地区」が、１５日にリリースされた携帯アプリによって３ＤＣＧに再現されようとしている。（写真は、「嘆きの壁」からアルアクサ・モスクへ続く木造の橋「ムグラビ橋」）
　エルサレム旧市街の「嘆きの壁」の前にあったムグラビ地区は、十字軍を破ったサラディンが１１８７年に建設した。
　だが、１９６７年の第３次中東戦争で東エルサレムを占領したイスラエル軍は、わずか数時間で１００棟以上の建物を破壊。約１０００人いた住民を追放してイスラエル人の入植を開始した。国連は違法な併合だとして非難している。
　フランスの歴史家バンサン・ルミール氏は「嘆きの壁の前にいる観光客の９９％は、この歴史について何も知らないだろう」とＡＦＰに語った。
　ルミール氏はイタリアのモデナ・レッジョ・エミリア大学と協力し、「ムグラビ地区を散策できる没入型アプリ」を開発した。３Ｄ技術によって、より多くの人に「この地区の歴史を伝えることができる」という。
　この計画は、約６０人の研究者による「オープン・エルサレム」と呼ばれる大規模プロジェクトの一環。同プロジェクトは今週、エルサレムの歴史に関する約４万件の文書から成るアーカイブを１２か国語でオンライン公開した。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2023/06/16-19:06）

More than 55 years after Israel destroyed the Moroccan quarter of Jerusalem's Old City, it has been rebuilt in 3D with the help of a mobile phone application launched Thursday.
Once located at the foot of the Western Wall, the Moroccan, or Mughrabi, quarter was inhabited by about 1,000 people until Israeli forces captured east Jerusalem in the 1967 Six-Day War.
Israel demolished the neighbourhood and went on to annex east Jerusalem -- a move deemed illegal by the United Nations.
In just a few hours, Israeli bulldozers tore through more than 100 buildings, displacing residents of the neighbourhood, founded in 1187 by Saladin who defeated the Crusaders in Jerusalem.
The ancient leader had established the quarter for Muslim pilgrims from North Africa. Today it serves as a plaza in front of one of Judaism's most sacred sites.
I think 99 per cent of visitors who are in front of the Western Wall know nothing of this history, French historian Vincent Lemire told AFP.
Working with Italy's University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Lemire developed a mobile application allowing people to stroll through each alley.
The application's designers said it allows users an immersive experience across the streets, mosques, schools, and courtyards of the Maghrebi quarter.
Lemire, who authored a book on the neighbourhood in 2022, said the 3D technology makes it possible to reach a wider audience than in academic writings.
The history of this neighbourhood is inaccessible, it must be made more accessible, he said.
In a press conference to launch the application, Ashraf al-Jandoubi al-Mughrabi, a descendent of Tunisian residents of the quarter, said: We will never forget our belonging to this district.
Lemire said the quarter was very representative of the open history of Jerusalem that we are trying to promote, which bears little resemblance to the current Jerusalem which has turned into a very simplistic and crude battlefield between two camps.
A dichotomy which, he said, crushes all the other plural and diverse stories of Jerusalem.
In January 2023, excavations by Israeli archaeologists unearthed remains of the neighbourhood, but experts were concerned about the fate of the ruins, which were buried soon after their discovery.
The 3D modelling of the Mughrabi quarter is part of a larger project called Open Jerusalem, which has brought together some 60 researchers who have collated and this week put online an archive of about 40,000 documents in 12 languages on the history of Jerusalem.