Talking Pyramids

Discovery News has launched a new podcast called Archaeorama. The podcast debuts with “On the Phone”, a series of interviews some of the world’s top archaeologists. The first interview is by Rossella Lorenzi with maritime archaeologist Cheryl Ward and SCA chief Dr. Zahi Hawass on the subject of Khufu’s boats.

“In this first podcast, we talk about a glorious heap of beams and planks buried beside the Great Pyramid of Khufu 4,500 years ago. The ancient wood fragments will soon be excavated and reassembled, Ikea style, into a unique pharaonic boat .

The vessel is the sister ship of a similar boat removed in pieces from another pit in 1954. Painstakingly reconstructed, this ship now stands resurrected in a museum built above the place where it was discovered.

Beautifully engineered, the boats reveal a level of skill that rivals the pyramids themselves. And like the pyramids, they raise many questions: What was their purpose? Was the embalmed Khufu taken to his pyramid in one of these ships? And why were there two boats?

But most of all, why did the ancient Egyptians first build and then disassemble and buried two expensive, full-sized royal ships at the base of the Great Pyramid?”

You can listen to the podcast at the Discovery News website

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Tags: boat, Khufu