How Solar Boats Were Discovered?

 By: Ali Abu Dashish, Yassmine ElSayed CAIRO, Feb. 7 (SEE) - Egyptian Archaeologist Dr. Zahi Hawas said that the discovery of the solar boats around the pyramid of King Khufu began in the winter of 1946; during the historic visit of King Abdel Aziz Al Saud, founder of modern Saudi Arabia, to Egypt. Preparations were then made for the visit of the King who was accompanied by King Farouk of Egypt to the archaeological sites.“Once the royal vehicle passed through the southern side of King Khufu's pyramid, they noticed sand and stone breakages, which were too high to hide that side of the pyramids.

King Abdul Aziz advised to remove those stones and rocks for visitors to enjoy the place more. In response, King Farouk immediately gave an order to ‘Dreiton’, the French scientist who was then head of the Egyptian Antiquities Authority, to remove those sand and stones. Few months passed before the Antiquities Authority allocated 50 Egyptian pounds for this mission. After the removal of nearly sixty thousand cubic meters of dust and stones; there appeared remnants of the archaeological wall which was surrounding the pyramid. The work was then supervised by the region's manager, Engineer Kamal El-Malakh, who had a diploma in the study of Egyptian antiquities; after graduating from the Faculty of Fine Arts. Another eyewitness, the great writer Anis Mansour recalled the moment of the discovery, saying: “As soon as he arrived, he looked into the narrow hole, saying that he could smell history.”

 This was the beginning of the story of the first sun boat, where following difficulties faced Engineer El-Malakh, as jealousy and hatred by the fame he got pressured him to resign and change his career to journalism. El-Malakh did an expansion of the small hole and was able to see what was inside. He then broadcast the news through the news agencies and spread fast worldwide, and he got big fame for that.He then underwent an administrative investigation and had his salary deducted by 50% before he eventually resigned. On November 23, 1954, the lifting of the first stone covering the boat was celebrated, and as recalled by Haj Ahmad Yusuf, the restorer of the boat in his memoirs; the stones were preserved while lifting, and later removed from the site.He added that the removal of the blocks took about three months, and then a device was put inside the hole to measure the humidity, for nearly six months, gave readings that showed humidity inside the hole reached about 88%, where the temperature there read 22 celcius.He then obtained three samples of wood from different places and sent them for analysis by labs of the faculty of Science, Cairo University. The story of the sun boats to be continued.