The Grand Egyptian Museum receives 42 pieces of Khufu's second ship

CAIRO - 2 May 2020: The Grand Egyptian Museum received 42 wooden pieces from the second Khufu ship, after extracting it from its pit near the pyramid of Khufu at the ancient pyramids of Giza.

It underwent restoration work in the archaeological laboratory located on the site.

The transfer process comes within the framework of the Egyptian-Japanese joint project between the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities and the Japanese Higashi University to extract, restore and re-install the second Khufu ship with the support of the Japan International Cooperation Authority.

The General supervisor of the Grand Egyptian Museum project and its surrounding area Atef Moftah pointed out that the number of pieces received by the museum -since the extraction of the first piece of wood from the ship in 2014 and until now- reached 1006 pieces, noting that after the completion of the extracting work and moving all the pieces it will be re-assembled and displayed next to the first Khufu ship, after moving it from its current place of display in the archaeological area to its new specialized building inside the museum.

Atef further noted that the construction of the specialized building is underway.

For his part, the Director General of Executive Affairs for Restoration at the Grand Egyptian Museum and supervisor of the restoration of the second Khufu ship Eissa Zeidan clarified that the team working on the ship has succeeded so far in extracting approximately 1272 pieces of wood, in addition to a rare knife, as well as a pillar made of copper.

Zeidan added that the restoration of 1,200 pieces was completed and a case report was made for each piece before being photographed using 3D imaging technology and laser scanning, in addition to documentation with manual and photographic drawings.

For his part, Sakuji Yoshimura -president of the Japanese Higashi Nippon International University and head of the second Khufu ship mission- said that the final concept of work of the second stage of the ship’s assembly is now being developed in cooperation with Japanese and Egyptian experts, and that the work team has documented the assembly of the pieces that have been raised, which would assist in the assembly process.