Camera reveals Pharaoh’s ‘solar’ boat
Photo:Egyptian Solar Boat
A remote-controlled Japanese camera has made it possible for the public to see the Egyptian Pharaoh’s ‘solar’ boat entombed in Giza.
Inserted through the stone, the camera shows the wooden boat, buried 4,500 years ago next to Giza’s Great Pyramid.
"This is the first time that this technology... is used to look at buried antiquities," said head of Egypt’s Supreme Council for Antiquities Zahi Hawass.
The boat, which was found in 1954 with its sister ship, has been under excavation and is now in danger of destruction, AFP reported.
According to Zahi Hawass, the camera can help assess the condition of the boats and the possibility of their restoration.
Japanese experts from Waseda University started their work in 1992 when insects entered the site, where the boats were first discovered.
Although the insects have been removed, water is now leaking from the museum housing the first ‘solar’ boat.
"I can tell you already that (the water) has affected a small part of the wood, hence the necessity to quickly finish the study and restore the wood," said Sakuji Yoshimura from Waseda University.
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