WATANI International
10 July 2011
Kamal al-Mallakh’s path to discovering the ancient solar boats of Giza was a long and hard one. It was preceded by specialised study mixed with his own experience with ancient monuments and the Egyptian civilisation.
The solar boats, buried at the foot of the Great Pyramid at Giza and discovered by Mallakh, were built to escort King Khufu, who reigned from 2590 to 2568BC and who was the builder of the Great Pyramid, through his celestial voyage after death into the afterlife. One was used for the daytime journey and the other during the night. Each traversed 12 stations, hence the first 24-hour journey for the full day.
The discovery in 1954 was one of the most significant in Egypt in modern times, and among the most important finds since Tutankhamen’s tomb was discovered by Howard Carter in 1922.
The significance rests in the uniqueness of the objects. The boat is the oldest example of a wooden vessel ever found in good condition, and the fact that it had been preserved for more than 45 centuries was astonishing.
The discovery
On 26 May 1954, Mallakh’s team dug two rectangular holes in the rock directly south Khufu’s pyramid. The holes were 30 metres deep and their axes ran from east to west.
The story of the discovery actually goes back to 1950, when for the first time the nine royal tombs or small pyramids lying alongside the Pyramids were restored inside and outside. Restoration work had also begun on dozens of tombs of royal family members and nobles located east of the pyramid.
“I noticed gaps which looked different from the normal gaps that usually connect two elements of any tomb. I started to study the issue to protect these gaps from being filled with sand,” Mallakh explained.
And so the journey of search and exploration began. Mallakh decided to begin his search south of the Great Pyramid and under a small gate formed of remnants of various stones including black and red granite, limestone from the surrounding area and Muqattam on the east bank of the Nile. The two ends of the gate were visible, at a height of no more than 20cms. While digging, Mallakh noticed a soft layer of clay covering both sides of the gate to hide its contents, and he also remarked that the material under the clay was not the normal hummock but was man-made.
Mallakh affirmed that the hummock was soft; and at the time he was certain that he would find the boats underneath it. He ordered the labourers to dig all along the gate, and there they found rose gypsum separators that were used as mortar during ancient times; especially during the Fourth Dynasty, of which Khufu was the second king.
Further digging led to the huge stones which formed the ceiling of the pits that housed the solar boats. The first double discovery of the two boats was made on 26 May 1954.
Using mirrors, Mallakh was able to make sure the inner surface of the stones carried heiroglyphs meaning they covered something of significance. The heiroglyphs denoted the names of Khufu and his son Djedefre. In the pit lay the 1224 pieces of wood, in 14 piles that make up the first sun boat.