The Pyramid of Khufu at Giza in Egypt, Khufu's Boats and Boat Pits

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Egypt Feature Story

The Pyramid of Khufu at Giza in Egypt

The Pyramid Proper, Part IV: Khufu's Boats and Boat Pits
by Alan Winston

>> Pyramid Index / Giza

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When I think of Khufu's complex at Giza near Cairo, I am often reminded of a poster
that hung for years in a friend's house. It depicted a five car garage, filled with some of
the most expensive automobiles in the world. The caption read, "The Benefits of
Higher Education". Of course, the five pits that once all may have held boats
surrounding Khufu's pyramid complex would have to be "The Benefits of Being
Pharaoh".

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It should be pointed out that there are actually seven boat pits in the whole complex of
Khufu at Giza, but two of the boat pits are associated with the smaller so-called
Queen's Pyramids.

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Two of the boat pits on the east side are now empty. Their walls were probably
surfaced with limestone slabs, which reduced their width and simplified construction
of a roof over them. Petrie found
some roofing blocks covering the
end of the southern trench, but
some scholars think that they
were never covered, since pillars
would have been needed to help
span their width. They are very
large. The southern pit, for
example, is 51.5 meters long,
seven meters wide at its midpoint
and eight meters deep. A third
boat pit is on the upper north edge
of the causeway, and therefore at
the very threshold of the mortuary
temple. It measures 45.4 meters in
length and 3.75 meters at its
widest point. It has a convex
floor, and is accessible by way of
an ancient staircase with 18 steps.
It too was empty. Though these
pits likely did at one time hold
boats, some scholars have also
speculated that they could have
simulated boats themselves, rather than containing real ones. However, George
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The Pyramid of Khufu at Giza in Egypt, Khufu's Boats and Boat Pits

Resiner found cordage and pieces of gilded wood inside the third pit along the
causeway, indicating that a boat had once been present.
The remaining two pits, in which intact boats were found, are on the south side of the
pyramid. According to Lehner, the boat pits on the southern side of the complex differ
from the others in one
important aspect. They
are long, narrow and
rectangular, rather than
boat shaped, and they
contain the disassembled
parts of real boats. That
the pits were built no
later than the end of the
4th
Dynasty
is
demonstrated by the fat
that they lie partially
under the pyramid's
southern enclosure wall,
which is dated to the end
of that dynasty.
The two southern boat
pits were discovered in
1954, during cleaning work, by the young Egyptian architect and archeologist Kamal
el-Mallakh and inspector Zaki Nur. The eastern pit was covered by a roof of forty-one
huge limestone slabs weighing between 17 and 20 tons each. The largest is about 4.8
meters long. The three westernmost of these stones were much smaller than the others
and have been interpreted as keystones. The pit measures about 32.5 meters in length.
When one of the slabs was raised from the eastern pit, the planking of the great boat
was seen, completely dismantled, but arranged in the semblance of its finished form.

9/03/10 9:39 PM

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The cedar boat now

on
display
was
originally dismantled
into 1,224 individual
parts. On top of the
wood was a layer of
mats and ropes, an
instrument made of
flint, and some small
pieces
of
white
plaster. The prow of
the boat, a wooden
column topped by a
round wooden disk,
was found at the
western end of the
pit. This column was
connected to two long wooden pieces that extended along the bottom of the pit. Most
of the wooden parts had been tied together with ropes. Also found inside the pit were
many other items, such as twelve oars, each mad from a single piece of wood, fiftyeight poles, three cylindrical columns and five doors. In total, there were thirteen
layers of materials
consisting of 651
artifacts ranging in
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The Pyramid of Khufu at Giza in Egypt, Khufu's Boats and Boat Pits

size
from
centimeters to
meters.

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10
23

The
boat
was
removed, piece by
piece, under the
supervision
of
Ahmed
Youssef
Mustafa, the master
restorer who worked
on
Hetephere's
funerary furniture. It
is 43.3 meters (142
feet) long and made of Lebanese cedar wood and some acacia. Its displacement was
45 tons. The maximum draft is 1.48 meters (5 feet). It is 5.9 meters wide. The separate
parts of the boat had numerous U-shaped holes so that the boat could be 'stitched'
together using ropes made of vegetable fibers. Interestingly many of the boats planks
were marked with signs for prow, stern, port and starboard. Nevertheless it took
Mustafa some ten years to completely reassemble the boat. That work was not
completed until 1968.
The boat's prow and stern are in the form of papyrus talks, with the stern one bent
over. Therefore, it is essentially a replica of a type of papyrus reed boat, perhaps
dating back to the Predynastic Period.
During the Old Kingdom, it is not
difficult to find many objects
simulating the Egyptian's earlier
construction material in more durable
material. It has a cabin, or inner shrine,
which is enclosed within a reed-mat
structure with poles of the same
papyrus-but form that we see in the
canopy of Hetepheres. It also has a
small forward cabin that probably was
for the captain. Propulsion was by
means of ten oars, and it was steered
using two large oar rudders locate din
the stern. There was no mast, and
therefore no sail, and the general
design of the boat would have not
allowed it to be used other than for
river travel.
On the walls of the pit in which the
boat now displayed in a special
museum was found, there were many
builders' marks and inscriptions, including some eighteen cartouches containing the
name of King Djedefre. This suggests to many Egyptologists that some parts of his
tomb complex were not completed until after his death. One scholar, Dobrev, has
theorized that the two boat pits on the south side of the Great Pyramid were built by
Djedefre as a gesture of piety connected with the establishment of the local divine cult
of his father and founder of the royal necropolis in Giza. However, if the boats were
used in the funeral of Khufu, it would be natural for Djedefre to have buried them with
his cartouches.

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The Pyramid of Khufu at Giza in Egypt, Khufu's Boats and Boat Pits

9/03/10 9:39 PM

It took a number of years to reassemble the boat, like a giant jigsaw puzzle, so that it
could be displayed in its own boat museum next tot he pyramid.

A side view of Khufu's famous boat at Giza

In the neighboring pit on the west, the boat remains sealed up with the original twenty
covering blocks. In 1987, the American National Geographic Society, in association
with the Egyptian office for historical monuments, examined this pit by boring a hole
into the limestone beams covering it and inserting a micro camera and measuring
equipment. The space was photographed and air measurements made, after which the
pit was sealed again. It was hoped that the pit had been so well sealed hat the air inside
would have last been breathed by the ancient Egyptians, but there were obvious signs
that this was not the case. Within, the parts of the disassembled boat were again
arranged in their correct relative positions, though the pit was shorter than the fully
assembled boat would have been.

Signs showing the prow, stern, port and starboard of Khufu's boat

Few inscriptions relative to Khufu's complex at Giza have ever been found, so
controversy surrounds many of its elements, including his boats. Scholars continue to
speculate about the purpose and meaning of the boats and boat pits at the Great
Pyramid, as well as at other royal tombs in Egypt. According to Jaroslav Cerny, the
four boats buried
near the east and
south walls of the
Great Pyramid were
intended for the
king's
use
in
traveling into the
netherworld in all
four
cardinal
directions. The fifth
pit near the approach
causeway
was
thought by him to
contain the boat on which the king's mummy was transported to the burial site. Other
experts, in particular Walter Emery and Selim Hassan, think that the boat is a sun bark
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The Pyramid of Khufu at Giza in Egypt, Khufu's Boats and Boat Pits

9/03/10 9:39 PM

used to transport the king over the heavenly ocean following the sun god Re.
Abdel Moneim Youssef Abu Bakr maintained that all the boats buried near the Great
Pyramid were originally used to carry the pharaoh to Egypt's holy places on
pilgrimages and other ceremonial occasions. Dr. Hawass, now head of Egypt's
Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), disagrees. According to him, traces of
shavings found about the boat pit which contained the reassembled boat show that they
were built right next to the pyramid. Furthermore, there were traces of white color on
the surface of some pieces of the boat, and a complete absence of water marks on the
hull, indicating to Hawass that the boat never entered the water. According to Dr.
Hawass, the boats to the south fo the pyramid are solar boats in which the soul of the
king symbolically traveled through the heavens with the sun god. The boats in the pits
by the upper temple were used by the king as Horus to travel throughout Egypt and
maintain order in his ream. The pit that lies parallel to the causeway might have
contained the funerary boat which was used to bring the king's body to its final resting
place, or might have been
used symbolically by the
goddess Hathor.
According to Lehner, the
southern boat pits do not
seem to have been a part of
the symbolic layout of the
whole Khufu complex, but
rather are a deliberate, ritual
disposal. Both of these pits
are rectangular, rather than
boat-shaped, and are too
small to have contained the
fully assembled boats, even
though the builders could
have easily achieved this if
they had wished to do so.
Hence, it appears that the
boats were intended to be
dismantled and buried.
Lehner therefore believes
that the boats might have
been intended to transport the king to the heavens, westward with the setting sun and
eastward with the rising sun, but he thinks the evidence points to a different use. Items
connected with the royal funeral were considered in some sense highly charged. To
neutralize them, they were dismantled and buried separately, close to but out-side of
the funerary precinct (these pits are outside of the enclosure wall). The wood canopy
for transporting a
statue, found ritually
disassembled in an
extra shaft outside
Khafre's
satellite
pyramid would be
another example. To
Lehner, it seems
probable that these
complete, but wholly
disassembled boats
were connected with
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The Pyramid of Khufu at Giza in Egypt, Khufu's Boats and Boat Pits

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Khufu's final earthly

voyage
to
his
pyramid. It should
also be pointed out
that
there
are
impressions ont he tightly fitting ropes, still visible on some of the logs, which would
have assured the water tightness of the boat, indicating that at some time, it could have
been set afloat.
So even with the boats of Khufu, many mysteries which may, or may never be
answered remain. In this regard, the remaining unexcavated boat is of interest, and
may someday lead us to a few of the answers we seek.
Back | Home | Next
See Also (Related to Khufu's Boat):
The Discovery of the Cheops' Solar Boat
See Also (Related to the Great Pyramid of Khufu):
The Pyramid of Khufu at Giza in Egypt, An Introduction
The Pyramid of Khufu at Giza in Egypt: The Pyramid Proper, Part I: Core and
Casing
The Pyramid of Khufu at Giza in Egypt, The Pyramid Proper, Part II: Internal
and Substructure
The Pyramid of Khufu at Giza in Egypt: Other Standard Pyramid Elements
The Pyramid of Khufu at Giza in Egypt: Khufu's Boats and Boat Pits
The Pyramid of Khufu at Giza in Egypt: The Three Queen's Pyramids
See Also: (Related to Egyptian Boats in General):
Barques, Barges and Byblos Boats
Ships and Boats of Egypt
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Chronicle)

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Hudson, Ltd

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Hudson, Ltd

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Egypt, The
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Shaw, Ian;
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Beaucour, Fernand; 1990 Flammarion

Laissus, Yves;

http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/greatpyramid5.htm

ISBN 050005105-4

1995 Harry N.
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The Pyramid of Khufu at Giza in Egypt, Khufu's Boats and Boat Pits

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Monument to Man

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Pyramids, The

Hawass, Zahi;
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424 825 2

Monuments of Civilization
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Barcocas, Claudio

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Ancient Egypt, The

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