Virtual Museumification to Protect and Transmit the Paleo-Christian Heritage of the East Algerian Region

The conservation of monuments and ruins, which are already exposed in their sites, needs a huge budget and skilled labor. How can we transmit this heritage to future generations when its conservation is not the government’s priority, or when the competent authorities do not allocate the required budget for conservation? If the conservation of cultural heritage is mainly the competent authorities’ task, its transmission is the citizens’ responsibility. This paper suggests the use of virtual exhibitions to ensure the sound conservation of the Paleo-Christian heritage of the East Algerian region and its transmission to coming generations. The lack of interest in this heritage and the absence of research and studies still exist, despite the archaeological and artistic values this heritage has. Thus, the focal point of this paper is to highlight such idiosyncracies. We present in this article, mainly, the results of a field study on visiting these basilicas, supported by a survey on social media, Instagram in our case, to reach a greater number of probable visitors.