Egypt

Tourists to see buried Egyptian solar boat via camera

Monsters and Critics

Egypt's top archeologist said Wednesday that tourists will be able to see for the first time Cheops' second solar boat through a camera put inside the boat pit.

Zahi Hawas, head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), said that a huge screen will be put in the solar boat museum, which is on the southern side of the great pyramid. The screen will show the boat which lies 10 metres below the surface.

The boat, built to take King Cheops to the underworld, was first discovered in 1957. Archaeologists covered the boat again so that it would not be damaged.

Hawas said that SCA, in cooperation with Japanese Egyptologist Sakuji Yoshimura from the University of Waseda in Japan will place the camera inside the boat. Tourists will be able to see the boat starting next Saturday without the pit having to be uncovered again.

In the mid-90s, a team of the Waseda University worked on getting rid of insects that entered the pit when it was opened the first time.

The team has also proposed a project for the restoration of the boat that would cost around two million dollars. SCA is still studying the project.

- Making A Boat Fit For A King
Al Ahram Weekly (Nevine el-Aref) Giza plateau was crowded on Monday as journalists, TV anchors, photographers and antiquities officials flocked to the northern side of King Khufu's Great Pyramid to witness Japanese scientists and archaeologists taking...

- More Re Second Solar Boat
Al Ahram Weekly (Nevine El-Aref) Khufu's second solar boat is to be exhibited at the entrance of the Giza plateau after the completion of four years of restoration, writes Nevine El-Aref The north side of King Khufu's Great Pyramid, which dominates...

- Uncovering Of 2nd Solar Boat, Giza
Youm7 (Akram Sami) A delegation from Waseda University has completed its exploratory research along with the Japanese Institute for Restoration Research, and is prepared to lift a stone cover, consisting of 40 panels, on the southern side of Khufu pyramid...

- Pharaonic Boat To Be Excavated, Reassembled
Discovery Channel (Rossella Lorenzi) This story has already been extensively covered both here and elsewhere, but one of the nice things about this article is that it provides a very good round up of all the details scattered throughout the recent stories:...

- Restoration Of Khufu's Second Solar Boat
Luxor Times Magazine has a very informative review of the third phase of the restoration of the second solar boat found next to the great pyramid. I myself hope that the boat will be restored and placed back into its pit for future generations in case...

Egypt