Khufu’s Ship marks today the 65th anniversary of its unexpected discovery in Giza on May 26, 1954. The ancient vessels dating back 4,600 years was unearthed near the Great Pyramid of Giza, also known as the Pyramid of Khufu. Archaeologists are certain the beautiful boat was built for the great Pharaoh Khufu but little is known about its exact purpose. Was the mysterious Khufu Ship built to ferry the Pharaoh into the afterlife? Or could the ship hold the secrets of the Pyramids’ construction?
Khufu’s Ship was found buried on the south side of the Great Pyramid by archaeologist Kamal el-Mallakh.
The entire ship, built form more than 1,200 pieces, was concealed in an air-tight vault covered by 42 limestone blocks.
It took years for the Egyptian Department of Antiquities to fully reconstruct the ship without damaging it but the process has not yielded any concrete answers about its origin.
A commonly accepted theory is Khufu’s Ship was designed in the fashion of the Sun god Ra’s so-called solar barge.
The solar barge known as Atet would ferry the Egyptian god across the skies, providing light to the world below.
If this is the case, Khufu’s Ship could have been constructed to aid the dead Pharaoh’s spirit travel into the afterlife alongside the god Ra.
According to The Solar Boat Museum, where the barge resides today at the foot of the Great Pyramid, Ancient Egyptians would bury boats likes this next to their dead.
The museum explains on its website: “Ancient Egyptians used to bury a ‘solar barge’ near the tomb of their pharaoh because they believed that their ruler needed transportation in the afterlife.
“In 1954, the parts of a cedar-wood barge were found in five pits near the Great Pyramid of Khufu.
In my opinion, the entire craft was specifically designed to lift objects
Istvan Soros, book author
“The barge was restored and assembled out of 1,200 pieces of wood and it is displayed, since then, in a glass museum near the Great Pyramid in Giza.”
There are, however, some signs of use during its lifetime, suggesting the ship may have been built to physically ferry the Pharaoh after he died.
This little clue suggests Khufu’s Ship carried the Pharaoh from the ancient city of Memphis to his final resting place in Giza.
Others, such as British writer Graham Hancock, have speculated the ship may have been used to the take the Pharaoh out to sea during his lifetime.
There are also some who have spectacularly claimed the ship’s construction could explain the mysteries of how the Great Pyramid of Giza was built.
Istvan Soros, book author and contributor to Ancient-Origins.com, wrote: “In my opinion, the entire craft was specifically designed to lift objects.
“Its size allowed it to easily hoist stone blocks of two or three tons, and on open water it could transport these to wherever they were needed.”
According to this incredible theory, the boat’s “asymmetric” design served to use the ship as a lever of sorts, which could dip in and out of water.
Mr Soros explained: “The structure of the prow stretches out higher than the stern, giving it the ability to dip and rise approximately five metres. Evidently, this is what it was designed to do.
“We must, therefore, look upon the vessel as a two-armed lever with a variable axis of rotation.
“As the vessel dipped it did not sink lower in the water, because its hollow interior is shaped so that the identical elevating power is produced, though over a displaced surface of contact.”
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