Perched to the south of the Great Pyramid, across the road from another cluster of mastabas, is a humidity controlled pavilion containing a 43 meter long boat from one of the five boat pits sunk around Khufu’s Pyramids (another boat has been located by X-rays and video cameras, but remain unexcavated).

When the pit’s limestone roofing blocks were removed in 1954, a faint odour of cedarwood arose. An Egyptian restorer spent fourteen years rebuilding a graceful craft from twelve hundred pieces of wood, originally held together by sycamore pegs and halfa-grass ropes. Archeologists term these vessels “solar boats” (or barques), but their purpose remain uncertain carrying the pharaoh through the underworld or accompanying the sun god on his daily journey across the heaven are two of the many hypotheses.