Building an Ontology for the Tangible Cultural Heritage of the Medina of Fez

A groundbreaking ontology, MedinaOnto, has been developed to model the tangible cultural heritage of the Medina of Fez. This semantic framework integrates social, geospatial, and historical dimensions, enabling robust semantic reasoning and effective data querying. Built upon established standards like CIDOC-CRM, FOAF, and GEOSPARQL, MedinaOnto leverages structured data from open sources such as Wikidata and DBpedia to represent a wide range of heritage entities, including monuments and culturally significant spaces. The ontology was rigorously evaluated through logical consistency tests, scenario-based validation, and SPARQL queries, confirming its scalability and reusability for both public and heritage professionals. This innovative approach offers new avenues for the valorization, mediation, and research of cultural heritage.

Daoudi, H., Chaker, I., & Zahi, A. (2025). Building an Ontology for the Tangible Cultural Heritage of the Medina of Fez. Heritage, 8(9), 391. https://doi.org/10.3390/heritage8090391