Once we finished our tour of the Tutankhamun Gallery, we had roughly an hour of free time. So, a friend and I went to see the Solar Boats that were once buried alongside King Khufu’s Great Pyramid. These are among the oldest wooden ships ever discovered and date back to approximately 4,600 years ago.
They are referred to as “solar boats”, “solar barges” or “solar barques”. These would have been ritual vessels believed to carry the resurrected king across the heavens with the sun god Ra. However, the first boat discovered and reconstructed does appear to have been used in water. So maybe it was once used as a funeral barge or maybe even by Khufu while he was alive to visit holy places and then buried for him to use in the afterlife.
Both boats were disassembled when found. The first boat was reconstructed back in the 1960s. It is considered to be the world’s oldest intact ship. It has also been described as “a masterpiece of woodcraft” which could still sail if put into a lake or a river.
The second boat is being put back together now in a space next to the first boat. It has some design differences from the first and is believed to have been created for a different function. Once its reconstruction is complete the two boats will remain displayed in their own special building side by side.
We were able to walk completely around the two boats, seeing them from every angle and from different levels. The second boat is currently just a skeleton. But the first boat looks like you could just walk onto it and sail off in it, if it were in water. It was remarkable to see something made of wood that was so old but looked so sturdy.
Although Khufu was the builder of the Great Pyramid, which is the only one of the ancient seven wonders of the world still in existence, there is only one, small ivory figure known to be of him. He apparently wasn’t like so many of the later pharaohs who had numerous massive statutes of themselves everywhere. His father is considered to have been Sneferu. His son, Djedefre, succeeded him to the throne. Djedefre’s brother, Khafre, succeeded him and built the second largest pyramid in Giza. More about him in the next post.
Making sure to have enough time to eat some lunch before heading to the Giza Pyramids for the afternoon, we next headed to the area with several restaurants, cafes and retail shops in the museum complex. We needed something that would keep us going through the afternoon but not be too heavy. A sandwich shop called Sandough seemed to fit the bill. I had a tuna sandwich with some fresh-squeezed orange juice. We were planning to have dinner at the Italian restaurant in the hotel that evening.
After lunch there was still some time before we needed to leave, so we checked out some of the shops. Didn’t see anything that I wanted to haul home and they didn’t have an online shop as of yet. So nothing was purchased there.
The first two photos are of the outside of the Khufu Boat Museum. The last photo is of a statue of Ramesses II that was encountered on our way out. All of the other photos were taken of the two boats (mostly the first one) inside of the museum.
The nautical term for Day 7 of the trip was “Pooped”. The poop is the stern section of a ship. To be “pooped” is to be swamped by a high, following sea. By the time this day was over, it described me quite well.
Next – Riding a camel at the Giza Pyramids & the Sphinx
