In this paper, we outline the problem of historic preservation and the opportunities that rigorous CAD models provide, describe the particular class of buildings in Makkah that we are concerned with, and discuss the modeling strategy we employ that takes advantage of common elements, symmetry and repetition in the buildings' construction, and standard operations in current CAD programs. We briefly discuss the tools for architectural heritage recording, construction of CAD models of historic buildings, and the systematic analysis of built form. Finally, the paper shows an example of using the method to streamline the construction of accurate CAD models.