The Khufu ship is an intact full-size
solar barque
Solar barques were the vessels used by the sun god Ra in ancient Egyptian mythology. During the day, Ra was said to use a vessel called the Mandjet ( egy, mꜥnḏt) or the Boat of Millions of Years ( egy, wjꜣ-n-ḥḥw), and the vessel he ...
from
ancient Egypt. It was sealed into a pit at the foot of the
Great Pyramid
The Great Pyramid of Giza is the biggest Egyptian pyramid and the tomb of Fourth Dynasty pharaoh Khufu. Built in the early 26th century BC during a period of around 27 years, the pyramid is the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World ...
of pharaoh
Khufu around 2500 BC, during the
Fourth Dynasty of the ancient Egyptian
Old Kingdom
In ancient Egyptian history, the Old Kingdom is the period spanning c. 2700–2200 BC. It is also known as the "Age of the Pyramids" or the "Age of the Pyramid Builders", as it encompasses the reigns of the great pyramid-builders of the Fourth ...
. Like
other buried Ancient Egyptian ships, it was apparently part of the extensive
grave goods intended for use in the
afterlife
The afterlife (also referred to as life after death) is a purported existence in which the essential part of an individual's identity or their stream of consciousness continues to live after the death of their physical body. The surviving es ...
. The Khufu ship is one of the oldest, largest and best-preserved
vessels from antiquity. It is long and wide, and has been identified as the world's oldest intact ship, and described as "a masterpiece of woodcraft" that could sail today if put into a lake or a river.
The ship was preserved in the
Giza Solar boat museum, but was relocated to the
Grand Egyptian Museum in August 2021.
History
Function
The history and function of the ship is not precisely known. It is of the type known as a "
solar barge
Solar barques were the vessels used by the sun god Ra in ancient Egyptian mythology. During the day, Ra was said to use a vessel called the Mandjet ( egy, mꜥnḏt) or the Boat of Millions of Years ( egy, wjꜣ-n-ḥḥw), and the vessel he ...
", a ritual vessel believed by ancient Egyptians to carry the resurrected king across the heavens with the sun god
Ra. However, it bears some signs of having been used in water, and it is possible that the ship was either a funerary "barge" used to carry the king's embalmed body from
Memphis to Giza, or even that Khufu himself used it as a "pilgrimage ship" to visit holy places and that it was then buried for him to use in the afterlife. It contained no bodies, unlike northern European
ship burials
A ship is a large watercraft that travels the world's oceans and other sufficiently deep waterways, carrying cargo or passengers, or in support of specialized missions, such as defense, research, and fishing. Ships are generally distinguishe ...
.
Discovery and description
The ship was one of two rediscovered in 1954 by
Kamal el-Mallakh—undisturbed since it was sealed into a pit carved out of the Giza bedrock. It was built largely of
Lebanon cedar planking in the "shell-first" construction technique, using unpegged
tenons of
Christ's thorn. The ship was built with a flat bottom composed of several planks, but no actual
keel
The keel is the bottom-most longitudinal structural element on a vessel. On some sailboats, it may have a hydrodynamic and counterbalancing purpose, as well. As the laying down of the keel is the initial step in the construction of a ship, in Br ...
, with the planks and frames lashed together with
Halfah grass, and has been reconstructed from 1,224 pieces which had been laid in a logical, disassembled order in the pit beside the pyramid. It measures long and wide. It was thus identified as the world's oldest intact ship and has been described as "a masterpiece of woodcraft" that could sail today if put into a lake, or a river. However, the vessel may not have been designed for sailing, as there is no rigging, or for rowing, as there is no room. Its discovery was described as one of the greatest Ancient Egyptian discoveries in
Zahi Hawass's documentary ''
Egypt's Ten Greatest Discoveries''.
Reconstruction
It took years for the boat to be reassembled, primarily by the
Egyptian Department of Antiquities' chief restorer,
Ahmed Youssef Moustafa.
Before reconstructing the boat, Moustafa had to gain enough experience on Ancient Egyptian boat-building. He studied the reliefs carved on walls and tombs as well as many of the small wooden models of ships and boats found in tombs. Moustafa visited the Nile boatyards of Old Cairo and
Maadi and went to
Alexandria
Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandri ...
, where wooden river boats were still being made. He hoped that modern Egyptian shipwrights had retained ship-building methods that would suggest how Ancient Egyptians built their ships. Then he investigated the work of shipwrights who built in a different tradition.
Exhibition
The Khufu ship was put on public display in a specially built museum at the
Giza pyramid complex
The Giza pyramid complex ( ar, مجمع أهرامات الجيزة), also called the Giza necropolis, is the site on the Giza Plateau in Greater Cairo, Egypt that includes the Great Pyramid of Giza, the Pyramid of Khafre, and the Pyramid of Me ...
in 1982; the museum was a small modern facility resting alongside the Great Pyramid. The first floor of the museum took the visitor through visuals, photographs and writings on the process of excavating and restoring the boat. The ditch where the main boat was found was incorporated into the museum ground floor design. To see the restored boat, the visitor ascended a staircase leading to the second floor. Floor to ceiling windows allowed for much sunlight and the wooden walkway took the visitor around the boat where the visitor could get a closer view of its impressive size.
In August 2021, the ship was relocated to the
Grand Egyptian Museum.
Gallery
File:Barque solaire-Decouverte2.jpg, The Khufu ship shortly after its discovery
File:Barque solaire-Decouverte3.jpg, The boat pit in which the Khufu ship was discovered, now inside the Solar Boat Museum
File:Cordes-originales-barque-khéops.jpg, Original rope discovered with the Khufu ship
File:Солнечная ладья.jpg, The Khufu ship in the Solar boat museum
File:GizaBoatPit.jpg, Solar boat pit, Giza Plateau
The Giza Plateau ( ar, هضبة الجيزة) is a plateau in Giza, on the outskirts of Cairo, Egypt, site of the Fourth Dynasty Giza Necropolis, which includes the Great Pyramids of Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure, the Great Sphinx, several ceme ...
, Egypt
File:Kheops-boat-pit.JPG, One of the boat pits on the east side of the Great Pyramid
See also
*
Atet
*
Abydos boats
The Abydos boats are the remnants of a group of ancient royal Egyptian ceremonial boats found at an archaeological site in Abydos, Egypt. Discovered in 1991, excavation of the Abydos boats began in 2000 at which time fourteen boats were identified ...
*
Ancient Egyptian technology
*
Dahshur boats
*
Ships preserved in museums
References
Further reading
* Nancy Jenkins (1980). ''The boat beneath the pyramid: King Cheops' royal ship''
* Paul Lipke (1984). ''The royal ship of Cheops: a retrospective account of the discovery, restoration and reconstruction. Based on interviews with Hag Ahmed Youssef Moustafa''. Oxford: B.A.R.,
* Björn Landström (1970). ''Ships of the Pharaohs: 4000 Years of Egyptian Shipbuilding''. Doubleday & Company, Inc.,
* Weitzman, David (2020
009. ''Pharaoh's Boat'' Reissued by Purple House Press,
External links
The Smell of Time* Web archive backup
*
ttp://oi.uchicago.edu/OI/PROJ/GIZ/Giza.html The Giza Mapping ProjectA Visitors Perspective of the Khufu Boat MuseumKhufu ship free high resolution images
{{DEFAULTSORT:Khufu Ship
Great Pyramid of Giza
Ancient Egyptian ships
Ships preserved in museums
Ship burials
Khufu
Ancient ships
1954 archaeological discoveries