Turkey's only fair that brings renovation, archaeology and museology technologies together, HERITAGE ISTANBUL kicked off yesterday and will continue through Saturday in the Hilton Istanbul Convention & Exhibition Center. Organized by TG EXPO with the support of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the Prime Ministry Directorate General of Foundations, HERITAGE ISTANBUL was opened by Minister of Culture and Tourism Nabi Avcı, yesterday. With free admission, the three-day fair will host 70 famous speakers from Turkey and abroad in simultaneous conferences.Dr. Hans Vandamme, the founder and director of the Historium Museum in Bruges, is also among the speakers. Working on innovative technologies and virtual reality for museums since 2001, Dr. Hans Vandamme will share his experiences with the audience through his speech, "Innovative Technologies for Museums and Cultural Heritage," today at 1:15 p.m.Dr. Zahi Hawass, an expert on Egyptian archaeology and history, is also among the speakers. Hawass has appeared in numerous documentaries about Egypt, led hundreds of excavations, taken part in famous documentaries, such as Giza Pyramids and Valley of the Kings, and served as a former Minister of Culture of Egypt and will be speaking at 2:15 p.m. today about "Pyramids, Mummies and Cleopatra with Recent Discoveries."Director-General of International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM), Dr. Stefano De Caro, will give an online conference from Italy at 3:30 p.m today.Wolter Braamhurst, a communication consultant at Europa Nostra, will speak about "Europa Nostra and European Year of Cultural Heritage in 2018" tomorrow at 10:45 a.m.Prominent speakers from Turkey will also be featured in HERITAGE ISTANBUL, including: Nezih Başgelen, Prof. Dr. Mehmet Özdoğan, Dr. Sinan Genim, Coşkun Aral, Sunay Akın, Dr. Halil Onur and Nihat Erdoğan.