Second Khufu Solar Ship to be restored live before visitors at Egypt’s Grand Museum
Assistant Minister of Tourism and Antiquities for
Archaeological Affairs at the Grand Egyptian Museum Al-Tayeb Abbas said that
the Grand Egyptian Museum’s visitors will see the restoration work of the
second Khufu Solar Ship in action, during their visit to the museum.
Abbas added that the work of assembling the boat will not
take place before the opening of the Grand Museum, as it requires a very long
time to be completely assembled.
Abbas further explained that the work of assembling and
restoring the second Khufu Solar Ship will take nearly 3 years, due to the poor
condition of the wood that was extracted from the boat pit. The excavation was
carried out in cooperation with the Japanese grant, and 1,700 pieces of wood
were extracted.
The discovery of the two ships of King Khufu dates back to
May 26, 1954, when journalist Kamal Al-Malakh announced the discovery. It is
considered one of the most important and unique discoveries of King Khufu’s
antiquities found on the south side of the Great Pyramid of Cheops [Khufu].
Kamal Al-Malakh and restorer Ahmed Youssef worked on
discovering, restoring and re-installing the first ship, which came to light
after nearly 5000 years of its creation. As for the second Khufu Ship restoration project, extracting
the timber is one of the largest restoration projects reflecting the fruitful
cooperation between Japan and Egypt.
The project is carried out in cooperation with the Ministry
of Antiquities, Japan's Waseda University and Higashi Nippon International
University headed by Dr. Sakuji Yoshimura, with the support of the
International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
Source: Egypt Today