Tower Tomb of Elahbel, Palmyra, Syria
| General Attributes |
DOI| 10.34946/D6GS36 | |
| Project Name | Tower Tomb of Elahbel, Palmyra |
| Country | Syria |
| Status | Upcoming |
| Citation |
| Gabriele Fangi, Wissam Wahbeh 2026: Tower Tomb of Elahbel, Palmyra - Photogrammetry - Terrestrial, Data Derivatives - 3D photogrammetry. Distributed by Open Heritage 3D. https://doi.org/10.34946/D6GS36 |
| Download |
| Spatial Data | Coming Soon |
| Data Type |
Size |
Device Name |
Device Type |
| Photogrammetry - Terrestrial | Not available | Not available | Not available |
| Data Derivatives - 3D photogrammetry | Not available | Not available | Not available |
| Background |
| Site Description | The Tower of Elahbel, located in the Western Necropolis of the ancient city of Palmyra, Syria, represents one of the most significant examples of Palmyrene funerary architecture. Constructed in AD 103, as indicated by an inscription on its façade, the tower was commissioned by Elahbel and his brothers as a monumental family tomb. It belongs to a distinctive typology of multi-storey funerary towers that developed in Palmyra between the first century BCE and the early second century CE, reflecting the architectural traditions, social organisation, and cultural identity of the ancient city (Henning, 2013).
The tower was characterised by a relatively regular masonry structure composed of large, carefully dressed stone blocks. Its external architectural features included a decorated entrance, originally framed by architectural elements and probably surmounted by a pediment, as well as an arched niche containing funerary sculptural representations. The building's vertical organisation accommodated multiple burial levels, connected by an internal staircase, following a relatively standardised architectural configuration typical of Palmyrene tower tombs of this period.
The interior of the monument was particularly notable for its elaborate architectural decoration and funerary sculptures. The ground floor contained 84 burial niches (loculi), associated with portrait reliefs commemorating members of the family. Additional chambers accommodated sarcophagi, some of which were decorated with reliefs depicting funerary banquets. The concentration of decorative elements on the ground floor, progressively diminishing on the upper levels, suggests a functional hierarchy within the monument, with the lower spaces serving as the principal setting for commemorative and funerary activities. Archaeological evidence indicates that the tomb continued to be used into the third century CE (Henning, 2013).
The Tower of Elahbel was destroyed in 2015 during the extensive destruction of Palmyra's archaeological heritage (BBC, 2015). Consequently, historical architectural documentation and photographic records acquired before its destruction have assumed particular significance as sources for studying, reconstructing, and communicating the monument's lost architectural features. The tower therefore provides a relevant case study for investigating digital documentation and visualisation approaches aimed at preserving and communicating architectural heritage through the integration of different forms of spatial and visual representation. | |
| Project Description | The primary dataset considered in this study consists of photographic documentation acquired during a survey conducted in August 2010, five years before the destruction of the monument. The survey focused on the exterior of the Tower of Elahbel and comprised a total of 160 photographs, subsequently assembled into 12 panoramic images captured from different positions around the building.
The photographs were acquired using a Canon EOS 450D digital camera equipped with a 50 mm lens, with an image resolution of 2256 × 1504 pixels. The multiple viewpoints and overlapping photographic coverage provided the basis for documenting the exterior architectural geometry and visible surface characteristics of the tower.
The photographic dataset had previously been employed by Professor Gabriele Fangi for a three-dimensional reconstruction based on spherical photogrammetry. This approach and its application to the documentation of Palmyra's architectural heritage were presented in Reviving Palmyra in Multiple Dimensions: Images, Ruins and Cultural Memory (Silver et al., 2018).
The availability of the original photographs, their panoramic representations, and the results of earlier photogrammetric processing provides a valuable foundation for investigating alternative digital representations of the monument. In particular, the dataset supports the exploration of different approaches to visualising architectural heritage, ranging from image-based representations to geometrically reconstructed three-dimensional environments.
Within the scope of this study, the Tower of Elahbel serves as a case study for examining the integration of heterogeneous representation methods within a unified visualisation framework. Rather than considering photographic imagery, panoramic visualisation, and three-dimensional reconstruction as independent outputs, the research investigates their complementary characteristics and their potential combination with tourist photos to enhance the spatial interpretation, visual communication, and digital accessibility of a lost architectural monument.
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| UNESCO World Heritage Site | Site of Palmyra |
| Collection Date | 2010-08-23 to 2010-08-23 |
| Publication Date | 2026-10-07 |
| License Type | CC BY-NC |
| Model Information |
| Reuse Score | B - High-Quality Model without Georeferencing |
| Entities |
| Contributors | Gabriele Fangi, Wissam Wahbeh |
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