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In 1954, Egyptian archaeologist Kamal el-Mallakh made a remarkable discovery when excavating beneath the southern side of the Great Pyramid of Giza. Within two huge rock-cut pits, carefully sealed with limestone blocks, lay a pair of spectacular ships resembling the mythical "solar barges" that the sun god Ra was believed to have traveled on as he made his daily voyage across the sky.
The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.Known as the Khufu Boats, the two vessels are thought to have been interred in honor of the pharaoh who built the iconic pyramid, although Egyptologists remain uncertain of their function. At present, the leading theory is that the boats were never intended to be used in this world, but were deposited to facilitate Khufu on his own solar journey as he transformed into Ra following his death.
However, some scholars argue that the solar ships may actually have floated down the Nile thousands of years ago, either as funeral barges for Khufu or as part of a flotilla that the pharaoh used to undertake a pilgrimage while still alive.
All we know for sure is that the huge boats – each of which measured around 43 meters (141 feet) in length – were marvels of ancient maritime engineering. According to a new analysis, the boats were constructed from imported Lebanese cedar wood, which was chosen due to its "superior mechanical properties, enhanced durability and hydrophobic characteristics."
When el-Mallakh first discovered the vessels, they had been deliberately disassembled, with the various components carefully stacked inside the subterranean pits. It took more than a year and a half to remove all 1,224 pieces of the first boat, which was then painstakingly rebuilt and put on display at the Solar Boat Museum in Giza, before being relocated to the Grand Egyptian Museum in 2021.
The second boat, meanwhile, proved more of a challenge to retrieve, and remained sealed in its original pit until 2009.
With both solar boats now reassembled, researchers have gained incredible new insights into the skill of ancient Egyptian shipbuilders. For instance, Khufu’s boats were constructed without using a single nail, as the enormous wooden planks of the hull were precisely crafted to lock together like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, with an extensive network of lashings employed to stitch various components together while maintaining a watertight seal.
Bearing in mind that Khufu reigned from 2589 to 2566 BCE, the finesse with which the vessels were built becomes even more astounding. Using only copper and flint tools, the workers who constructed the barges were able to achieve results that even modern shipwrights would be proud of.
At around 4,500 years old, the reassembled solar ships are the oldest known intact boats in the world, and while no one is planning on testing them out, it’s thought that they would still be able to sail today if launched on the water. Whether or not they were ever meant to travel on any of Egypt’s watercourses, however, is still anyone’s guess.
