Egypt Displays Another of Pharaoh Cheops’ Solar Boats

Egypt has displayed for the first time the second solar boat of Pharaoh Cheops (Khufu) which was entombed in an underground pit next to the Great Pyramid of Giza in preparation for a later reconstructing of the vessel, according to archaeologists over the weekend. The 4,500-year-old boat, discovered in 1957, is a sister of a similar boat exhumed from another pit in 1954.

Special cameras were installed inside the pit at depth of ten meters to transfer images of the boat to viewers on a big screen over the pit. Tourists and journalists gathered at the site during the opening of the pit and watched the archaeological display.

Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, Zahi Hawass, said Egypt will restore the boat and move it from its current location to the great Egyptian Museum which is under construction. It will be opened in 2011.

He added that the display was a result of cooperation with Waseda University of Japan in the context of a joint project costing US$ 2 million.

Some Egyptologists believe that solar symbols found inside the pit offer evidence that those who disassembled and buried the boat believed Khufu’s (from fourth dynasty who ruled Egypt from 2589 to 2566 BC) soul would travel from his tomb in the near pyramid through a connecting air shaft to the first and second boat pits.

A Japanese scientific team addressed in the mid-nineties the problem of insects and installed a structure over the pit to protect it from sunlight.

Source African Press Agency

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