Solar boat museum was constructed next to the Great Pyramid of Khufu. It is located a few meters from where it was found on the southern side of pyramid and built to contain the Solar Boat of the great king discovered by Kamal El Mallakh in 1954.
Solar Boat Museum
The museum was established by Kamal El-Mallakh who was born in Assuit, Egypt. He was a dedicated scholar of Egyptology and culture; he died in October 1987.
Historians and archaeologists had long debates about the exact historical name and the purpose of these boats. However, most likely these boats were manufactured to be used in the funerary rituals of the King and maybe some of his royal family members.
The museum is a humidity controlled pavilion containing a 141 feet long boat, one of the five boat pits sunk around Cheops’s pyramid . The boat made entirely of cedar wood is over 120 feet long and is about 40 tons displacement.
The boat consists of 1224 pieces of wood. It is 44 meters long and around 5.9 meters wide and it has 12 paddles. A compartment that stands upon three circular columns is located at the stern of the boat. This compartment has a double ceiling based upon some pillars that were made in the shape of papyrus plants.
Some modern scientific studies that were recently carried out on the wood used to make the boat suggest that the wood must have been 7,000 years old before being cut and used in making the boat. Therefore, some scientific theories assert that the age of the boat is not less than 1,2000 years.
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