The solar Boat

the boat was not the only a means of transportation or an instrument used on fishing and hunting, but also and above all it has a symbolic importance it was the means of transportation for the gods, since the sun-god himself has travelled from the heavens everyday by a boat, which was called "boat of millions of years", in order to ensure for humanity the balance of the seasons and ceaseless the succession of day and night. Since the Pharaoh was being the son of Ra, thus he followed his celestial destiny, consequently he needed a boat by which he would navigate to the heavens.
How the boats were found
The story of discovering these boats could be traced as follow. In May 1954, at during the works of cleaning the young Egyptian architect and archeologist Kamal el-Malakh and the inspector Zaki Nur found two hermetically sealed triangular shaped ditches, which were closed off by about 40 gigantic blocks of lime. The weight of each stone was about 17 to 20 tones. The northern most one - was opened, a large wooden boat was disassembled into 1.224 pieces. This extraordinary discovery was carefully and patiently restored to its original shape under the direction of Ahmed Youssef Mustafa for a period, which extended for more than ten years, and in 1968 the boat was finally and fully reassembled.
The construction of the boat
The boat was 5.9m. wide at its center and 43.6m. long and a draft of 1.5m. Moreover, it has two cabins a central one of about 9m. long, and small front cabin, which probably was used by the captain. Moreover, we found six pours of Oars, the length of the shortest one was 6.5m., and the longest 8.5m. Furthermore, five pairs were lashed with rape row-locks next to the fore canopy, whereas the sixth pair served as a rudder Oars by the stern post. However, their length, design and position would make them relatively ineffective for rowing. It has been also suggested that 12 Oars were used for steering the boat being towed either by a tug, or by ropes on land.
It had no keel, but hull boards were first pegged roughly together, and then "sewn" through holes that only pierce the inside of each plank, and this stitching was done with a rope made up of twisted hemp, or with leather throngs with slender battens lashed underneath to seal each crack. As the lashings tightened in water, these strips made caulking unnecessary.
Once the hull had been built the 16 rules were cut, and they were made exactly to shape and were interchangeable. A narrow beam, which supported the main deck joist was found on each side of these rules, lashed to the center of these rips was the spine of the boat. Moreover, a timber was running from prow to stern over the main joists. The decking was laid as a serves of hatches, each of which would be easily lifted aside to put stores, for example, into the hull on the prow and stern, huge pegs were located into rockets in the distinctive posts, which gave the boat its shape.

The purpose of the boat
A great debate arouse concerning the significance of this boat.
1- It may have been used as a boat for sailing "there is evidence it was in water".
2- It was one of the boats used by Cheops during his reign.
3- It was used in transporting the body of the dead pharaoh to his final resting place.
4- It may also have played another role; functioning as a solar boat like that of the god Ra.
5- The papyri form boat shape generally was linked in illustrations with the "Wia"; the boat of the sun god, in which the sun was believed to traverse the heavens. As result the Cheops boat was frequently called "the solar boat" implying that it was provided purely for ceremonial reasons to ferry the soul dead king daily across the sky.

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