The ancient ship found buried near the Great Pyramid is the Khufu ship.
The vessel was discovered in 1954 by Egyptian archaeologist Kamal el-Mallakh in a sealed pit at the southern foot of the Great Pyramid. It had been dismantled into 1,224 pieces and preserved beneath limestone cover stones for roughly 4,500 years. A lengthy conservation and reconstruction project reassembled the cedar vessel.
The ship is about 43.4 metres long and 5.9 metres wide, making it one of the oldest and best-preserved full-size vessels known from antiquity. Most of its timber is Lebanon cedar. Its construction uses a shell-first technique, with planks joined by unpegged tenons and secured with rope.
Its exact purpose remains debated. It may have been a ritual solar barque intended to carry the dead king through the heavens with the sun god Ra, or a funerary vessel used during Khufu’s burial. “Ra’s boat” describes a religious interpretation, not the ship’s canonical name. The reconstructed vessel was moved to the Grand Egyptian Museum in 2021.