In what year was the Khufu ship discovered?

The Khufu ship was discovered in 1954.

Egyptian archaeologist Kamal el-Mallakh found the vessel sealed in a limestone pit beside the Great Pyramid at Giza. It had been dismantled into 1,224 pieces and arranged carefully for preservation, rather than left as a wreck. The ship dates to about 2500 BC, during Egypt’s Fourth Dynasty, when Pharaoh Khufu commissioned the Great Pyramid.

The vessel is usually called a solar barque because ancient Egyptian religious beliefs associated boats with the sun god Ra and the king’s journey through the heavens. However, its exact purpose remains uncertain: it may have served a ritual role, transported Khufu’s body, or been used before burial. It measures about 43.4 metres long and 5.9 metres wide, and was built mainly from imported Lebanese cedar.

A common mix-up is confusing the 1954 discovery with the ship’s later reconstruction and museum display. Restoration took years, and the reconstructed vessel moved from the Giza Solar Boat Museum to the Grand Egyptian Museum in 2021.