Extraction of pieces of 2nd Khufu Ship completed successfully

CAIRO – 16 June 2021: The Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities was able to extract 1,700 wooden pieces from the pit of the second Khufu Solar Ship located at the Giza pyramids area, in preparation for their transfer to the Grand Egyptian Museum.

The work team was able to extract all the wooden pieces from inside the pit of the second Khufu Solar Ship, which totaled to about 1,700 pieces of wood. 

A large number of these pieces were transferred to the Grand Egyptian Museum to be displayed in a designated building set to include the first and second ships.

The history of the discovery of the two ships of King Khufu dates back to May 26, 1954, when engineer Kamal el-Malakh announced the discovery, which is one of the most important and unique discoveries of King Khufu’s monuments. The discovery is the two pits for the ships of King Khufu, which were called (the Solar Boats), and were found on the southern side of the Great Pyramid of Cheops.

Archaeologist Kamal el-Malakh and restorer Ahmed Youssef worked on the discovery, restoration and re-installation of the first ship, which came to light after remaining underground for nearly 5000 years. It is currently displayed in its own museum, which opened in 1982.

It is worth mentioning that the project of restoring and extracting the timber of the second Khufu Ship is one of the largest restoration projects ; it came as a result of the fruitful cooperation between Japan and Egypt. 

The project is carried out by the Ministry of Antiquities, in cooperation with Japan's Waseda University and Higashi Nippon International University headed by Sakuji Yoshimura, and with the support of the International Cooperation Agency (JICA).