The Solar Boat

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In the year 1954 the Egyptian archeologist Kamal Elmalakh found this solar boat in the southern side of the great pyramid. It was found in a pit covered with about 41 blocks of limestone the weight of each is about 20 tons. He made a hole in one of these blocks to see what was inside. He could see the wooden parts of the boat.
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After removing the blocks he found the boat in dismantled pieces, and were arranged in 13 layers above each other. they were 1224 pieces.
The fascinating thing is that when they removed the blocks, there were some signs on each block to help to reconstruct the oat again in the after life.

The boat was made of Cedar wood, coming only from Lebanon. It's known that Cedar wood contains natural oils to keep it in a good condition.
It took about 12 years to reconstruct and restore this boat. The length of it is about 43 meters, its width is about 5 meters and the depth is 3 meters.
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# The main things which were found in the boat

(1) The first thing was found were the ropes that were used during its construction as the didn't use any thing else such as nails for example. These ropes were made of Helfa grass.
(2) The second thing they found was a part of matting which was used to cover the main captain cabin.
(3) The third thing was a part of black granite that was used as a hammer, and a knife made of flint.

The parts of the boat were chemically treated to be kept in a good condition. They used Tar to cover the inner parts to prevent water coming inside.
If you look you can see the main captain cabin surrounded by 36 columns, then 2 steering oars. And 5 pairs of oars on each side, then the shrine.
The prow of the boat taking the shape of a bundle of papyrus the sign of the northern kingdom in Egypt.
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Concerning the function of the boat, there are 2 opinions:

The first opinion

It says that it was used as a solar boat to help the king in in his journey in the after life with god Raa ( the god of the sun), from east to west by the day and from west to east at night.

The second opinion

Some believed that it was used to transport the kings mummy from Memphis the city of the living to Giza the city of the dead , because we found out some parts of wood are shrink when they are wet.
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The museum in which they put this boat was opened in 1982 , and it exactly takes the shape of the boat. No electricity used there, just natural light.