Explore a Pharaoh's Boat
Purpose
Over a half century after the boat's discovery, scholars still
debate its purpose. Some say the vessel is a solar barque, which
Khufu would have used in his persona as the sun god Re during his
daily voyages across the sky. Others feel the ship was a funerary
craft for transporting Khufu's body on the Nile to the Giza
necropolis or on a final pilgrimage to holy sites. (Here, a funerary
barge as depicted in the Book of the Dead of Heruben.) Like much
else surrounding this magnificent creation, its function remains an
enigma.