Pyramids of Giza; Solar Boat Museum

View of the pit where the remains of the Solar Boat were excavated in 1954, located on the east side of the Pyramid of Khufu; In 1925 George Reisner excavated the opulent burial of Cheops' [Khufu's] mother Hetepheres I, the only substantially unplundered royal tomb of the Old Kingdom, which was found in a shaft beside the causeway. Five pits arranged around the main pyramid originally contained ritual boats; one, excavated in 1954 by Kamal el-Mallakh, yielded the excellently preserved components of a dismantled cedarwood river vessel measuring over 43 m long. Reconstructed and conserved by Ahmed Youssef Mostafa, it is now displayed in a special museum on site. It is debatable whether the vessel was actually used during the King's funeral to transport the body to the valley temple, or whether it had a purely symbolic function relating to the journey of the dead King through the cosmos [the origin of the term 'solar' boat]. Source: Grove Art Online; http://www.groveart.com/ (accessed 1/15/2008