Use of Photogrammetry for Digital Surveying, Documentation and Communication of the Cultural Heritage. Example Regarding Virtual Reconstruction of the Access Doors for the Nameless Temple of Tipasa (Algeria)

This paper presents a methodological contribution in the field of the archaeological restitution’s process. This latter is based on virtual anastylosis, which concerns the reconstruction of fragments of the ruins of the nameless Temple of Tipasa in Algeria. We have to mention that our work focused more particularly on the virtual restitution of the three access doors of the sacred courtyard of the temple. Here, we have found many fragments including the voussoirs, which were revealed during the excavation work, encouraging the proposition of our hypothesis on the initial state of the temple. The protocol followed is based on the photogrammetric survey of the blocks which has allowed us to generate 3d models of the elements constituting the entrance facade to the sacred courtyard. The historical documentation as well as the architectural treatises made it possible to fill the gaps with the aim of communicating the most relevant image of our temple. The main objective of the research was to provide a corpus of data in 2d and 3d of all the blocks which has served, at first the documentation and the study of the remains; but also for the proposal of virtual reconstitution hypothesis for valorization and knowledge of part of the history of the site of Tipasa.