She sneaked into the museum's brand new galleries, four months after the sumptuous procession of the kings and queens of Egypt.
Locked in a luxurious case with the false air of a titanic sarcophagus, the solar boat of Pharaoh Khufu was transported to the Grand Egyptian Museum, the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities said on Saturday.
Carefully staged, the operation mobilized the assistance of the military engineers of the Egyptian armed forces to ensure that the fragile vessel, protected by a double frame of wood and metal, crosses without incident the approximately 2 kilometers of its journey, from the shadow of the great pyramid to that of the bustling metropolis.
Read also: Pharaonic show for the unprecedented parade of 22 royal mummies in Cairo
"After crossing the streets of Giza in an autonomous vehicle, the boat of Khufu discovered in 1954 at the southern corner of the Great Pyramid has ended its long journey to the Great Egyptian Museum (GEM)"
, specified a ministry press release.
His trip on a special remote-controlled vehicle, imported from Belgium, began Friday evening and lasted 10 hours, according to the official MENA news agency.
According to the press release from the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities, the entire operation took 48 hours.
Just as much was needed for the departure, with great pomp, of the pharaonic boat.
Khufu's solar boat transported from Giza to the Grand Egyptian Museum
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The Great Pyramid of Cairo, also known as the Pyramid of Cheops, is the largest of the three pyramids at Giza. King Khufu whose tomb it contains was an Egyptian sovereign of the Fourth Dynasty, who built in the middle of the third millennium BC, the monumental pyramid which bears his name today. 42 meters long and weighing nearly 20 tons, the Khufu barque was built in cedar from Lebanon and is in exceptional condition for a ship nearly 4,500 years old. It is
"the largest and oldest wooden artifact in the history of mankind,"
in the words of the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities. Buried in pits next to the royal burial chambers, the solar boats were used to transport the deceased to thebeyond.
Read also: Pieces from Tutankhamun's treasure at the New Cairo Museum
An endlessly delayed inauguration
Egypt is counting on a series of recent archaeological discoveries to revive its tourism sector, vital but in difficulty after suffering multiple shocks for ten years, from the 2011 uprising to the current pandemic.
In April, authorities moved 22 mummies of ancient Egyptian kings and queens in a grand ceremony through the streets of Cairo.
They joined the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in Fustat, the new home of the royal remains.
Supposed to eventually house more than 100,000 historical and archaeological objects, the Grand Egyptian Museum is presented by Egypt as an important archaeological landmark for its most precious antiquities. The inauguration date of this new major institution has not been specified by the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities, although the official website of the museum mentions an expected opening for
"end of 2021"
. A time prepared for 2020, the launch of the museum has again been delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic and has now been postponed from season to season for nearly a year. In the land of the pharaohs, each large-scale company is decidedly projecting itself into the long term.