In the same glamorous way that the ancient Egyptian royal mummies and sarcophagi were transported last April to the new Archaeological Museum next to the Pyramids of Giza, the transfer of the only surviving boat of Pharaoh Khufu, which dates from 2,500 BC, took place on Saturday.

Khufu’s boat is one of the oldest, largest and best preserved of antiquity. It is 43.4 m long, 5.9 m wide and weighs 20 tons.

The ship, which has been described as a “carpentry masterpiece”, was sealed in a pit around 2500 BC. during the Fourth Dynasty of the Old Kingdom of Egypt at the foot of the Great Pyramid of Pharaoh Khufu, in the Pyramid complex of Giza.

Like other buried ancient Egyptian ships, it was apparently part of extensive burial items intended for use in the afterlife. Made of plane tree and cedar wood, it was built to carry the soul of Pharaoh to the heavens accompanied by the god Ra, that is, the Sun, which is why it is known as the “Solar Ship”.

Special thanks to the huge efforts of the Grand Egyptian Museum, the Engineering Authority of the Armed Forces, the Supreme Council of Antiquities and all the state agencies, companies and teams who contributed to the successful move of the first Khufu boat pic.twitter.com/8SHXLQnhFf

— Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities (@TourismandAntiq) August 7, 2021

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The ship was transported in the early hours of Saturday to the nearby Grand Egyptian Museum, which will be inaugurated later this year. The transport operation lasted 48 hours.

“The aim of the transfer project is to protect and preserve the largest and oldest biological wood artifact in human history for future generations”, the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities said in a statement.

The ship was discovered in 1954 in the southern corner of the Great Pyramid and archaeologists believe it may have been used to transport Cheops’ body from Memphis to Giza.

The construction of the Grand Egyptian Museum, which will exhibit more than 100,000 objects from ancient Egypt, took more than 17 years.