Tourists to see buried Egyptian solar boat via camera

Monsters and Critics

Egypt's top archeologist said Wednesday that tourists will be able to see for the first time Cheops' second solar boat through a camera put inside the boat pit.

Zahi Hawas, head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), said that a huge screen will be put in the solar boat museum, which is on the southern side of the great pyramid. The screen will show the boat which lies 10 metres below the surface.

The boat, built to take King Cheops to the underworld, was first discovered in 1957. Archaeologists covered the boat again so that it would not be damaged.

Hawas said that SCA, in cooperation with Japanese Egyptologist Sakuji Yoshimura from the University of Waseda in Japan will place the camera inside the boat. Tourists will be able to see the boat starting next Saturday without the pit having to be uncovered again.

In the mid-90s, a team of the Waseda University worked on getting rid of insects that entered the pit when it was opened the first time.

The team has also proposed a project for the restoration of the boat that would cost around two million dollars. SCA is still studying the project.