MuseumChick | Danee Gilmartin

Behind the Khufu (Cheops) Great Pyramid in Giza, Egypt, is the Khufu Boat Museum (which unfortunately looks more like a trailer than a museum). This museum houses the original felucca of King Khufu, the builder of the Great Pyramid. This felucca, made from Lebanese cedar wood, was thought to have traveled the Nile in 2500 BC. Discovered in 1954, it took 13 years to restore and this was done by Egyptian Department of Antiquities’ chief restorer, Ahmed Yousef.

This felucca, housed in the museum, is the largest of the few found buried around the Great Pyramids. The ditches where they were excavated are still visible and the ditch where the main felucca was found is incorporated into the museum design.

When visiting the museum, the first floor takes you through visuals, photographs and writings on the process of excavating and restoring the felucca. To see the actual felucca, you must climb the staircase leading to the second floor. Flooded with sunlight from the floor to ceiling windows, the upper floor walkway takes you around the felucca where you can get up close view of its impressive size of 143 feet long and 19.5 feet wide. I was astonished not only by its size but also by its condition, considering it is over 4500 years old! It has been described by historians as the oldest, largest and best preserved vessel from antiquity.

It is believed that this boat was used as a “solar barge” or ritual barge for the sun god, or could have been used for funerary purposes.

A ditch where one of the several feluccas was excavated

The sun peeking through the clouds above the pyramid and felucca ditch

Walking to the entrance of the Khufu Boat Museum

Inside the museum, on the first floor

Upper painting- dismantled parts of the felucca shown as they were found in the pit.

Lower painting- the 41 limestone blocks found in the pit during excavation after removing the sand.

Original ropes made from Haifa grass which were used to join the boat pieces together.

Original knots used on the boat

Photograph of the excavation of the ropes in 1954

Small model built by Ahmed Yousef

Photograph of Egyptian Department of Antiquities chief restorer, Ahmed Yousef

Large model built by Ahmed Yousef

This is the original pit where the felucca was found. It is 30 meters long and was covered with 41 large blocks of limestone weighing about 18 tons each. The dismantled parts of the boat had been stacked in 13 layers. The 1,224 wooden parts were found in this pit.

Entering the sunny upper floor to view the original, restored felucca

Walking along the pathway that wraps around the felucca to get a good view of the oars

On the upper ramp you can get a close view of the bow

The cabin, also made of Lebanese cedar wood

Close-up on the cabin siding

Large windows let in lots of sunlight and give a good view of the neighboring pyramid

Overlooking the Great Pyramids of Giza

©2010 Danee Gilmartin All rights reserved

    On my recent trip to Egypt to visit the ancient tombs and temples, I found time to visit the extensive collection at the Cairo Museum twice, which still wasn't enough time to see the entire collection. Two sprawling floors with many rooms house the mummified bodies of the famous pharaohs, treasures from King Tut's tomb and countless statues. It would take days to see all that the Cairo Museum possesses. Although the collection is large with many exciting pieces the museum itself is in disrepair. It is evident that the $12 entrance fees are not going to paint, display cases or cleaning crews, but even the mess couldn't distract from the famous pieces that visitors come here to see. I was disappointed to find that taking photos inside the museum is prohibited but the sculpture garden has many items that were worth photographing. 

The sculpture garden in front of the museum. A nice place to rest after a long day at the museum.

Sculpture of Goddess Hathor in the garden

Part of an obelisk

    To make up for the disappointment of not being able to photograph the inside collection, I was excited to find in the garden a particular item that I was looking for- the counterpart to the pink granite sphinx that I saw a few weeks ago at the Louvre (that I wrote about in my post “Searching for Mummies in Paris”). There wasn't a label marking the sphinx in the garden but I was aware that the counterpart to the Louvre sphinx is housed at the Cairo Museum so when I compared the hieroglyphics and the cartouches carved into the sides of the two sphinxes the hieroglyphics matched. This 9.5 ton pink granite sphinx rests in the sunlight outside the front entrance of the Cairo Museum and although the one in the Louvre is in better condition, it was still interesting to compare the two that used to be side by side on the Nile in Tanis, Egypt and that are now 2000 miles apart.

Pink granite sphinx in the front of the Cairo Museum, counterpart to the Louvre's sphinx.

The hieroglyphics match, marking that these used to be a pair many years ago. (Left is from the Cairo Museum garden; Right is from the Louvre Museum in Paris)

    The multi-tasking Cairo Museum garden is also a graveyard. Along with many ancient statues, the gardens are also eternal home to François Auguste Ferdinand Mariette (1821-1881), French archaeologist, Egyptologist and the founder of the Cairo museum. Mariette's tomb rests in a sitting area to the left of the museum.  Mariette is also the writer of the popular play, Aida.

Mariette's tomb in the sitting area of the garden

    While in Egypt I visited Saqqara, the site where the Seated Scribe, the highlight of the Louvre's Egyptian collection, was found (referred to in my post "Searching for Mummies in Paris"). This early pyramid complex is located on the left bank of the Ni
le and was home to much of the earliest Pharaonic art including the many seated scribe sculptures found there. The Cairo Museum has an extensive collection of artifacts found in Saqqara with some dating from around 2500 B.C. They have one in particular that is very similar to the seated scribe at the Louvre, complete with life-like sculpted quartz eyes. Below is a picture of the seated scribe found in the Cairo Museum. In this statue, he has a scroll of papyrus in his lap and is ready to write with his right hand but the pen is missing. The band around his neck indicated where a necklace would have been. He has inlaid eyes, fringed with copper representing eye paint. This sculpture dates back to 2470 B.C. 

Seated scribe at the Cairo Museum

Saqqara, site where many seated scribes were found.

The Saqqara step pyramid. The first pyramid of Ancient Egypt.

    On my second visit to the Cairo Museum I made it for the grand opening of the new Cairo Children's Museum, housed in the lower part of the building. The Children's Museum is extremely well put together, I dare say, more polished then the main museum. Although geared towards children, this museum was still amusing for adults. Along with a small collection of ancient objects, the Children's Museum has many famous Pharaonic art pieces reconstructed out of Legos!

This way to the new Children's Museum!

Lego Pharaoh

Lego Sphinx in the entrance

    The most exciting thing to see at the Cairo Museum is the very famous 50 pound, solid gold mask of King Tut and the contents of his tomb found by archaeologist Howard Carter in 1922. Seeing the real the mask in person was astonishing. The condition was incredible considering it's over 3000 years old. The gold is extremely shiny and the detail and colors of the lapis, turquoise and quartz were exquisite. This is definitely the highlight of the Cairo Museum. I also got a picture of the reconstructed Lego mask from the Children's Museum!

Comparing the real mask to the Lego version