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Khufu Boat Pits

Khufu Pyramid Complex

Khufu Pyramid Complex: Site: Giza; View: Khufu Boat Pits (Boat Pit No. 4)

Details

  • Tomb Owner
    Khufu
  • Excavator
    (Karl) Richard Lepsius, German, 1810–1884
    George Andrew Reisner, American, 1867–1942
    Selim Hassan (Bey), Egyptian, 1886–1961
  • Attested
    Sir William Flinders Petrie, British, 1853–1942
  • Hassan No.
    Khufu Boat Pits
    Sun-bark Boat Grave
  • Other No
    Khufu Boat Grave
  • PorterMoss Date
    Dynasty 4
  • Site Type
    Trench
  • Shafts
    Boat-pit No. 1; Boat-pit No. 2; Boat-pit No. 3; Boat-pit No. 4; Boat-pit No. 5 (aka Sun-bark Boat Grave)
  • Remarks
    Boat-pits No. 1-2 are parallel to the southern side of Khufu's pyramid and north of Cemetery G.I.S., with No. 1 west of No. 2. Boat-pits No. 3-4 are parallel to the eastern side of Khufu's pyramid, with No. 3 off the south side of Khufu's mortuary temple and No. 4 off the northern side of Khufu's mortuary temple. Boat-pit No. 5 is also east of Khufu's pyramid, but is parallel to Khufu's causeway just east of Khufu's mortuary temple. Lepsius excavated in 1843. Petrie excavated in 1880-1882 but did not recognize the import of the boat pits. Reisner re-excavated No. 5 in 1924 and called it a sun-bark. Hassan re-excavated Nos. 2-5 in 1934-1935 and called No. 3 the Northern North-south Boat, No. 4 the Southern North-south Boat, and No. 5 the East-west Boat (or solar-boat).

Excavation Diary Pages 5

Maps & Plans 7

Drawings 1

Published Documents 15

Full Bibliography

  • Aldred, Egypt to the End of the Old Kingdom, figs. 81, 83.

    Altenmüller, Hartwig. "Funerary Boats and Boat Pits of the Old Kingdom." In Filip Coppens, ed. Abusir and Saqqara in the year 2001. Proceedings of the Symposium (Prague, September 25th-27th, 2001). Archiv Orientální 70, No. 3 (August 2002). Prague: Oriental Institute, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, 2002, pp. 269-270, 273-274, 282-285, fig. 1, p. 289, fig. 6.

    Bothmer, Bernard V. Egypt 1950: My First Visit. Oxford: Oxbow Books, 2003, p. 9, note 23.

    Bruchet, Nouvelles recherches sur la Grande Pyramide, pl. 3.

    Cerný, Jaroslav. "A Note on the Recently Discovered Boat of Cheops." Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 41 (1955), pp. 75-79, fig. 1.

    Cwiek, Andrzej. Relief Decoration in the Royal Funerary Complexes of the Old Kingdom: Studies in the Development, Scene Content and Iconography. Warsaw: Institute of Archaeology, Faculty of History, Warsaw University, 2003, pp. 93, 96.

    Dimick in Archaeology 8 (1955), p. 94, unnumbered fig.

    Elstner, Egypt: The Gift of the Nile, pl. 42.

    Hanna, Hany. "Cheops Wooden Boat and its Museum; Condition Case Study." In Hany Hanna, ed. ICOM-CC-Wood, Furniture and Lacquer. International Conference on Heritage of Naqada and Qus Region. Monastery of the Archangel Michael, Naqada, Egypt. 22-28 January 2007. Preprints 1. Egypt: International Council of Museums & Diocese of Naqada and Qus, 2007, pp. 182-187, figs. 3, 4.

    Hassan, Selim. Excavations at Gîza 6: 1934-1935. Part 1: The Solar-boats of Khafra, their Origin and Development, together with the Mythology of the Universe which they are supposed to traverse. Cairo: Government Press, 1946, pp. 40-42, fig. 14.

    Hassan, Selim. Excavations at Gîza 10: 1938-39. The Great Pyramid of Khufu and its Mortuary Chapel. With Names and Titles of Vols. 1-10 of the Excavations at Gîza. Cairo: General Organisation for Government Printing Offices, 1960, p. 38, figs. 10-11, 13, pl. 12-14.

    Hawass, Zahi. "Khufu's National Project: The Great Pyramid of Giza in the Year 2528 B.C." In Peter Janosi, ed. Structure and Significance: Thoughts on Ancient Egyptian Architecture, Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2005, pp. 315-317, figs. 3, 4.

    Hawass, Zahi. "Excavating the Old Kingdom. The Egyptian Archaeologists." In Egyptian Art in the Age of the Pyramids. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1999, pp. 157-158.

    Hawass, Zahi. "Pyramid Construction. New Evidence Discovered at Giza." In Heike Guksch and Daniel Polz, eds. Stationen. Beiträge zur Kulturgeschichte Ägyptens Rainer Stadelmann gewidmet, Mainz: Philipp von Zabern, 1998, p. 56.

    Hawass, Zahi. "The Discovery of a Pair-Statue near the Pyramid of Menkaure at Giza." Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Abteilung Kairo 53 (1997), p. 289.

    Hawass, Zahi. "The Great Sphinx at Giza: Date and Function." In Gian Maria Zaccone and Tomaso Ricardi di Netro (eds.) Sesto Congresso Internazionale di Egittologia. Atti, Volume II. Turin, 1993, p. 187.

    Lehner, Mark. "Giza. A Contextual Approach to the Pyramids." Archiv für Orientforschung 32 (1985), p. 158.

    Lehner, Mark. "The Development of the Giza Necropolis. The Khufu Project." Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Abteilung Kairo 41 (1985), p. 137.

    Manuelian, Peter Der. "Excavating the Old Kingdom. The Giza Necropolis and Other Mastaba Fields." In Egyptian Art in the Age of the Pyramids. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1999, pp. 146, 150, 152, 153, notes 20, 42.

    Maragioglio and Rinaldi, L'Architettura 4, Tav. 1, 9, 10.

    Michalowski, Art, fig. 850.

    Monter, Lives of the Pharaohs, fig. on p. 33.

    Porter, Bertha, and Rosalind L.B. Moss. Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Reliefs, and Paintings 3: Memphis (Abû Rawâsh to Dahshûr). Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1931. 2nd edition. 3: Memphis, Part 1 (Abû Rawâsh to Abûsîr), revised and augmented by Jaromír Málek. Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1974, pp. 14-16, plans 3, 5, 19.

    Reisner, George A. "A New Discovery in Egypt." Harvard Alumni Bulletin (March 19, 1925), pp. 736-738.

    Reisner, George A. "The Dead Hand in Egypt." The Independent 114, No. 3903 (March 21, 1925), p. 322.

    Rowe, Alan. "Studies in the Archaeology of the Near East II: Some Facts Concerning the Gread Pyramids of el-Gîza and Their Royal Constructors." Bulletin of the John Rylands Library 44, No. 1 (September 1961), pp. 115-116.

    Smith, William Stevenson. "The Old Kingdom in Egypt," The Cambridge Ancient History, rev. ed. of vols. I & II, Cambridge University Press, 1962, p. 31.

    Soga, The Nile, fig. on p. 62.

    Thomas, Elizabeth. "Solar Barks Prow to Prow." Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 42 (1956), pp. 66-67.

    Verner, Miroslav. "Contemporaneous Evidence for the Relative Chronology of Dyns. 4 and 5." In Erik Hornung, Rolf Krauss & David A. Warburton, eds. Ancient Egyptian Chronology, Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2006, p. 132.

    Viollet and Doresse, Egypt, pl. 57.

    Westendorf, Das Alte Agypten, fig. on p. 44.

People 5

Ancient People

  • Khufu

    • Type Tomb Owner
    • Remarks Second king of Dynasty 4, son of Snefru. Builder of the Great Pyramid at Giza, the only one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World still standing. Known two thousand years later by the Greeks as King Cheops. Horus name: [mDdw] Medjedu. Full birth-name: Khnum-Khufu.

Modern People

  • (Karl) Richard Lepsius

    • Type Excavator
    • Nationality & Dates German, 1810–1884
    • Remarks Egyptologist. Nationality and life dates from Who was Who in Egyptology.

  • George Andrew Reisner

    • Type Excavator
    • Nationality & Dates American, 1867–1942
    • Remarks Egyptologist, archaeologist; Referred to as "the doctor" and "mudir" (Arabic for "director") in the excavation records. Nationality and life dates from Who was Who in Egyptology.

  • Selim Hassan (Bey)

    • Type Excavator
    • Nationality & Dates Egyptian, 1886–1961
    • Remarks Egyptologist; Sub Director General. Nationality and life dates from Who was Who in Egyptology. (1886-1961) Egyptian Egyptologist; born Mit-Nagi, 15 April 1886, he studied at the Higher Teacher's College, Cairo under Kamal (q.v.); in 1912 he became a teacher and in 1921 obtained a post in the Egyptian Museum as assistant keeper; he studied in Paris 1923-7 at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes; he was the first Egyptian to be appointed as a Professor of Egyptology in the Universitv of Cairo, 1928 - 36; he was later made Deputy Director of the Egyptian Antiquities Service responsible for the care of all monuments in the Nile valley, 1936-39; Ph.D. Vienna University, 1935; stimulated by the archaeological work of P. E. Newberry (q.v.) and Junker (q.v.)he began an active career in excavations with the clearance of some of the Giza mastabas in 1929; the excavations carried on by him in this necropolis continued until 1939 by which time a great deal of digging had been achieved, published in 10 parts; he also cleared the Sphinx and its temple, for the first time completely digging out the great amphitheatre around it and ensuring that it would not be buried by send again so easily; he wrote a study on this work and on the temple of Amenhotep II here; in addition the so-called Fourth Pyramid or the palace-façade tomb of Queen Khent-kawes of the Fourth Dynasty was investigated and also the funerary town of the priests associated with it; he later worked on the Unas causeway at Saqqara and at the valley temple of this king, discovering some of the mastabas in this area and two great subterranean tombs dated to the Second Dynasty; his final excavations at Giza were carried out on the east and south faces of the Great Pyramid and at the mortuary temple of King Khufu, 1938-9; he also took part in the campaign to save the monments of Nubia, and wrote a report on this subject; he published about 53 books and articles on Egyptological subjects in English, French, and Arabic, Hymnes religieux du Moyen Empire, 1928; Le Poème dit de Pentaour et Le rapport officiel sur la bataiILe de Qadesh , 1929; Excavations at Giza, 10 pts., 1929-60; The Sphinx. Its History in the Light of recent Excavations, 1949; Report on the Monunents of Nubia,1955Excavations at Saqqara 1937-8, 3 vols., 1975; in Arabic Literature of Ancient Egpt, 2 vols.; Ancient Egypt from Prehistoric Times to the Age of Rameses 11, 6 vols.; he died in Giza, 30 Sept. 1961. AfO 20 (1963), 310 (H. Brunner); Archaeology 14, no, 4 (1961, 293; ASAE 58 (1964), 61- 84 (bibl.) (Dia Abou-Ghazi); Orientalia 31 (1962), 271; Goettinger Miszellen 76 (1984), 78-80; Reid, JAOS 105 (1985), 237, 241-44.

  • Sir William Flinders Petrie

    • Type Attested
    • Nationality & Dates British, 1853–1942
    • Remarks Father of British Egyptology.