Egypt has transported the Pharaoh Khufu’s intact solar boat dating back some 4,600 years to the country’s soon to be unveiled grand museum, the antiquities ministry said on Saturday.

Solar boats were buried in pits next to royal burial chambers in the belief that they would transport the departed into the afterlife.

Cairo’s Great Pyramid – also known as the Pyramid of Cheops – is the largest of the three Giza pyramids and houses Khufu’s tomb, who was buried in 2566 BC.

 

Egypt has transported the Pharaoh Khufu’s intact solar boat dating back some 4,600 years to the country’s soon to be unveiled grand museum, the antiquities ministry said on Saturday

 

Pictured: King Khufu’s solar boat is displayed at a museum on the northern side of Khufu’s Great Pyramid, in Giza, Egypt, August 31, 2016

 

Solar boats were buried in pits next to royal burial chambers in the belief that they would transport the departed into the afterlife

‘After… crossing the streets of Giza on a smart vehicle, the first boat of King Khufu discovered in 1954 at the southern corner of the Great Pyramid has terminated its long journey to the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM),’ a ministry statement said.

The boat was commissioned by Khufu, a Fourth Dynasty monarch who ruled during the Old Kingdom.

The ministry boasted that the 42-metre (138-foot) long and 20-tonne solar boat is ‘the biggest and oldest organic artifact made of wood, in the history of humanity’.

 

Pictured: The solar boat is transported in a black container with a glowing picture of the boat on the outside from the pyramid in Giza to the museum

 

The boat was commissioned by Khufu, a Fourth Dynasty monarch who ruled during the Old Kingdom. Pictured: The large wooden transporter sits in-front of the Pyramids of Giza

 

Pictured: A group of people who were presumably involved in moving the solar boat from the pyramid to the soon-to-be-opened museum pose in front of the transporter

Its journey on a special remote-controlled vehicle imported from Belgium began late on Friday and took 10 hours, the official MENA news agency reported.

Egypt has touted the anticipated opening of the GEM at the Giza plateau, home to the famed pyramids, as an important archaeological landmark housing its most precious antiquities.

The vessel was transported intact on its 7.5-kilometre journey, and is set to be one of the star exhibits when the new museum opens.

It had been on display near the Great Pyramid.

 

Pictured: Archaeologists work on the restoration of Khufus second solar boat, which was found during an excavation work near the Great Pyramid of Giza, at a workshop established by the support of the Egyptian Ministry of State of Antiquities in Giza, Egypt on March 29, 2017

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Cairo’s Great Pyramid – also known as the Pyramid of Cheops (pictured in the background behind the Khufu Boat – is the largest of the three Giza pyramids and houses Khufu’s tomb, who was buried in 2566 BC

The vessel, discovered in 1954 at the southern corner of the Great Pyramid, has been exhibited for decades at a museum bearing its name at Giza Plateau.

Egypt says the Grand Egyptian Museum, which has been under construction intermittently for 17 years, will contain more than 100,000 artifacts when it opens.

Egypt has pinned its hopes on a series of recent archaeological discoveries to revive its vital but ailing tourism sector which has suffered multiple shocks, from the 2011 uprising to today’s coronavirus pandemic.

In April, authorities moved the mummified remains of 22 pharaohs from Cairo’s iconic Egyptian Museum in a grandiose ceremony to the National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation in the city.

In a carefully choreographed televised event, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi greeted the coffins that included the mummies of Ramses II and Queen Hatshepsut.