CAIRO - Egypt has achieved another spectacular translation, but this time above all technically demanding: after the royal mummies of last spring, now there has been the displacement of the enormous and still intact "solar boat" of pharaoh Khufu towards the new Great Egyptian Museum (Gem) near the pyramids of Giza.
It is an Egyptian vessel from about 4,600 years ago that the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities presents as "the largest and oldest wooden artifact in the history of mankind".
With an operation prepared for almost a year, the ship was transferred in 48 hours from a museum dedicated to it, but closed since last August, to the upcoming but unspecified inauguration Gem on the western outskirts of Cairo. Moving the extremely delicate 42-meter-long, 20-ton ship by 7.5 km, without dismantling it, was "one of the most important, challenging and rare archeology and engineering projects" ever built, said the Chief Superintendent of the set-up. del Gem, Major General Atef Motfah, announcing the success of the operation. The remotely piloted vehicle was scenically decorated with the luminous stylization of an Egyptian ship and pyramid decorations. The wheeled vehicle was brought from Belgium to save the ship "any vibration",also thanks to the use of "special foams" and continuous monitoring of temperature and humidity percentages. The ship, inside a metal container, has been in motion for ten hours since Friday evening. L
he boat had been discovered in 1954 at the southern corner of the Great Pyramid, that of "Khufu", the pharaoh of the 4th dynasty better known by the Hellenized name of "Cheops". This and other "solar boats" were buried alongside the royal burial chambers because they were designed to transport the dead pharaohs to the Hereafter. Egypt is focusing on archeology to revive the tourism sector, a great source of hard currency and engine of 15% of its GDP, but sunk by a decade of revolutions, terrorist attacks and, now, a pandemic. In April there was the spectacular translation of 22 mummies of kings and queens of ancient Egypt, including that of the iconic Ramesses II, from the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square to the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization (Nmec).The president and ex-general Abdel Fattah al-Sisi stood out to welcome the procession of sarcophagi live on TV, including beams of light, martial music and gun salute.
