The ship brought Egyptian pharaohs to the afterlife

Egyptian pharaohs believe that the Abydos boat representing the cycle of life regeneration will help them reincarnate after death.

In October 2000, archaeologists from the University of Pennsylvania and Yale University, found a 5,000-year-old hull in Abydos, Egypt. This is an important event because very few ships of ancient Egyptian civilization can survive to this point. Up to now, archaeologists have found 14 boats in the area.

Two boat models from the tomb of Tutankhamun at the Paris 2012 and Berlin exhibitions in 2013. (Photo: Wikimedia).

The first boats were found in 1991. They are located near the tomb of pharaoh Khasekhemwy, the reigning emperor at the end of the second dynasty. However, these boats were not excavated right away because of conservation issues. Archaeologists claim that they existed before the tomb site was built and are more likely to belong to the first pharaoh.

Abydos boats are about 18-24m long, 2-3m wide and 60cm deep, can accommodate 30 people. Scholars argue that Abydos boats are not only models but they can be used in practice. Abydos boats are often used in burial ceremonies, and archaeologists have found 35 boat models in the pharaoh Tutankhamun tomb.

The Abydos boat is the first boat to be built from planks and not trimmed from a monolithic trunk. It was completely different from the solitary rafts or boats they had created earlier, proving to be an important development in the history of ancient Egyptian boat construction.

God Ra on the sun boat.(Photo: Wikimedia).

Due to the complexity of the production process, the Abydos boat is considered a symbol of the wealth and power of the pharaoh. It helps scholars understand more about the prosperity and technology of the earliest dynasties in Egyptian history.

In addition to practical uses, the Abydos boat also has an important symbolic meaning. In the beliefs of the ancient Egyptians, the sun god Ra often traveled through the sky during the day and went down to the golden stream at night on a boat. The daily journey of Ra represents the cycle of life regeneration. By burying Abydos boats near the tomb, pharaohs hope they can be reincarnated in the afterlife. The famous Khufu boat in the tomb area of ​​Khufu, Giza, also means this symbol. According to the researchers, Abydos boats may be the original version of the Khufu boat .