The boat beneath. The King cheops royal ship.pdf

King

Cheops' Royal Ship

The Boat Beneath

Text by Nancy Jenkins Photographs by John Ross

the Pyramid ,

$17-95

More than a quarter of a century ago a

young Egyptian archaeologist, clearing a

site just south of the Great Pyramid at Giza,

broke through a massive slab of limestone

to reveal a vault beneath his feet. For the

first time in 4,500 years the sun's rays were

shining down on the timbers of a great

papyriform ship, built for a king and then

dismantled and buried here at the height of

the Egyptian Old Kingdom. Astonishingly

well preserved, it was by far the most

ancient vessel ever to come to light.

Nancy Jenkins is the first to tell the full

story of this Royal Ship — its discovery,

excavation and reconstruction. She tells also

who built it and why, how it has survived

intact for so long, and what connection it

may have had with the age-old Egyptian

myth of the Sun-god, eternally journeying

across the heavens in his Reed Float.

But this is also a story of modern Egypt

and of one man in particular, Ahmed

Youssef Moustafa, Chief Restorer of the

Department of Antiquities, who almost

single-handedly put back together the 1,223

pieces of .the ship. Working with a giant

jigsaw puzzle—though a puzzle without

(Continued on back flap)

O980

The Boat Beneath the Pyramid

\i; Nancy Jenkins

The Boat Beneath

the Pyramid

King Cheops' Royal Ship

Special Consultant:

Ahmed Youssef Moustafa

Photographs by John Ross

Holt, Rinehart and Winston

New York