What’s the importance of it ?
1- The discovery of the Cheops boat considers as one of the most important archaeological finds in Egypt, in the world and this is the most ancient vessel found in perfect condition anywhere in the world.
2- The boat was not only a means of transportation or an instrument used in fishing and hunting , but was also and above all of symbolic importance.
3- It was the means of transportation of the gods .
The god Amun was led on his sacred boat during great religious processions and the sun god Ra himself travelled the heavens every day in what called “ the boat of the millions of years “ to ensure for humanity the balance of the seasons and ceaseless succession of day and night .
4- The pharaoh , the son of Ra followed his celestial destiny and thus needed a boat to navigate the heavens .
5- The boat was also used for funerary purposes to carry the pharaoh’s body in his pilgrimage to the holy places and from worldly abode to his place of burial .
The description of the boat
1- Cheops boat is fully 43.3 m long with of 5.6 m and a draft of only 1.5 M which made it suitable only for river navigation.
2- The boat has 2 cabins : A main Cabin about 9m long consists of 2 rooms
The smaller about 2 M long in the front and the inner of the 2 ceiling is supported by 3 palm columns , and the cabin is surrounded by 36 columns shaped like tent-pegs .
3- A small front cabin which probably was for the captin propulsion was by means of 10 pairs of Oars , and steering through 2 large oar rudders located in the stern .
4- As there is no trace of a mast , it would have been impossible to use a sail .
Its prow and stern are in the form of papyrus stalks the stern one bent over .
5- It is wooden replica of a type of papyrus reed boat perhaps dating back to the predynastic period , another example of the Egyptian fondness for simulating their earliest reed structure in more durable materials .
The bark
On which the body of Cheops was transported a long the causeway toward his eternal resting , place it may also have a purely religious significance as the solar - bark on which the soul of the dead .
Pharaoh journeyed to join the sun God Ra in his eternal celestial navigation.
The boats around the great pyramid
2 One is situated to the north of the mortuary temple.
3- The second one is situated to the south of mortuary temple.
4- The third one is located to the north of the causeway near its upper end .
These 3 pits were empty when they were discovered .
5- The fourth pit is situated to outside the south east, the enclosure wall of the pyramid containing a dismantled wooden boat .
6- The fifth pit lies to the south west the enclosure wall of the pyramid and the slabs of its roof have not been removed yet.
In 1954
1- The 4th boat-pit was found by Kamal El Malakh , the boat consisted of 651 elements and 1222 individual pieces of wood, ropes and copper.
2- The smallest piece measures a few centimetres in length and the largest piece measures 23 m in length.
3- The pit measures 33.5 m in length, 5 m in width and 3,5 m in depth.
4- It was covered by 41 large slabs of limestone inscribed with name of king DjedefRe , the successor of king Cheops.
5- This boat has been reconstructed by Ahmed Youssef and it is now in housed in air - conditional solar boat museum.
6- The boat measures 43m in length, 5.9 m in width and 1.78 m in depth.
7- It has 5 pairs of Oars, it has a pair of steering oar about 6.5 m in length.
8- The boat has a papyri form bow and stern the inner structure of the deck -house, consists of an antechamber and main cabin with 3 columns to support the roof .
9- The boat-pits were situated at the northern side of the tomb to ascend the soul of the deceased to the north side of the sky to be as star among the northern stars , which were known in ancient times the eternity stars .
10- Kamal El Malakh believe that the kings of old kingdom built their boats to help them as dead kings to travel a cross the sky with god Re during the day time and travel with god Atum during the night time .
Kamal El Malakh supported his theory with the existence of the 2 boats -pits of king Cheops.
One in the south- east and the other in the south west of the pyramid and he called them as Solar boats.
Other Egyptologists
- Argue against this Theory and consider all boats around the pyramid as funerary boats used to carry the mummy of the dead king from Memphis to burial place at Giza.
By analysis of the mud it seems that the boat of king Cheops had been used in the Nile.
- Others say ... believe that all pits around the pyramid contained boats, some of them were used during the funerary procession while others may be solar boats connected with the spirit of the king in the other life [ his journey with the sun god]
From this we understand that this magical Theory must be connected with a magical boat .
Comments
Post a Comment