The Ministry of Culture issued a manual for "Documentation and Digital Archiving of Cultural Heritage in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia", which includes guidelines and procedures related to the inventory, documentation and archiving of cultural elements, directed to all operational agencies related to culture. The manual is available for download at the ministry's website: https://www.moc.gov.sa/en/Media-center The manual includes a definition of cultural heritage, and the way to deal with it according to a specific methodology through three practical stages, starting with identifying and classifying the cultural assets or elements, then evaluating the importance of the initial state of them, then the second stage, which is the initial documentation and its steps that include verifying the information validity and the method of filtering the cultural element as well as preparing and managing its own record. The third stage also included "digital archiving" and its steps by digitizing and publishing the content of cultural elements. The scope of the manual covers tangible Saudi cultural heritage, such as monuments, groups of buildings and archaeological sites, movable cultural heritage (artifacts), underwater cultural heritage, and cultural sites as well as intangible Saudi cultural heritage, such as knowledge, practices, oral traditions, expressions, language, Performance art, social practices, festive occasions, traditional and handicrafts and contemporary cultural elements. Through the manual, the Ministry of Culture seeks to provide a reference that helps authorities document cultural elements and digital archiving them, through specific and clear steps that comply with international standards and best practices. The ministry said the manual aimed to ensure unification of efforts in defining and documenting the Saudi cultural heritage, in addition to improving coordination among the various stakeholders in the cultural system, facilitating the nomination of these cultural elements to the international lists, such as the World Heritage List, the Representative List, the Urgent Safeguarding List and the Good Practices Register within the framework of the agreements signed by Saudi Arabia. — SPA
