French archaeologists have discovered a 5,000-year-old wooden boat in an expedition in Egypt, it has emerged.
The significant discovery was made in Abu Rawash, west of Cairo, the antiquities ministry in Egypt said.
Mohammed Ibrahim, the antiquities minister, said: ‘It goes back to the era of Pharaoh Den, one of the First Dynasty kings’. The six-metre long and 1.5-metre wide pharaonic solar boat ‘is in good condition,’ he added.
Its planks are now undergoing renovation before it is put on display in a museum.
The pharaohs believed that solar boats, buried close to them at death, would transport them in the afterlife.
According to Middle East Online, the boat’s wooden sheets were transported to the planned National Museum of Egyptiamn Civilisation were they will be restored.
One the museum is finished, it is expected they will be put on display at some point next year.
The group of French archeologists were working for the French Institute of Oriental Archaeology (IFAO).
The group first started its excavation work in Abu Rawash in the early 1900s.
