Rediscover Ancient Egypt with Tehuti Research Foundation

Transferring people, minerals, and goods between Ancient Egypt and other faraway places was much more extensive and common than is generally imagined. The seas were not barriers, but high roads for active international commerce. Traveling by water has been (and continues to be) the most effective, economical, and safest way to travel for both people and goods. Travel by land complements travel by water for major/large goods.

The Ancient Egyptians had the means to travel the high seas—with a large number of high quality ships. They also had the geographic knowledge to travel the open seas. The evidence shows that their means and knowledge enabled them to reach the farthest countries of the earth. The following pages will detail the wealth of high quality ships and the Ancient Egyptian knowledge of high seas travel.

Previously in chapter 11, Total Science, we showed the Ancient Egyptian knowledge of the stars as well as the surface of the earth (including water).

Ancient Egypt had the means, knowledge, material, and experience to transport people and goods by sea and land. The quality of the Ancient Egyptian ships were truly recognized and appreciated when the Khufu (Cheops) boat (4500 years old) was found next to the Great Pyramid in Giza, during the 1970s. That boat, now housed in a museum next to the Great Pyramid, is superior and much more seaworthy than Columbus’ Santa Maria, the Mayflower, or the Vikings’ ships. The physical evidence is clear that the Egyptians had the means to travel on the high seas. Sizes of even larger ships than Khufu’s will be detailed later.

Khufu’s boat is one of the largest ancient ships found to date. The longest of Viking boats found in Europe was about 98.5 ft [30m], while Khufu’s boat is 142.5 ft [43.4m] long. It is about 19.4 ft [5.9m] wide and 5.75 ft [1.75m] deep and has a displacement of over 40 tons. The prow, formed in the shape of a papyrus-bundle, is about 20 ft [6m] tall. Its stern rises to 23 ft [7m]. Its rudder consists of two massive oars. The boat has several cabins on its deck. There is some evidence that Khufu’s boat was actually used in water. Marks caused by abrasion between the ropes and the wood of the vessel are still clearly visible in many places.

The boat consists of several pieces of wood that are held together with ropes. The ropes shrink when wet, while the wood expands when wet. Such shrinkage and expansion provided tight, secure seals, and eliminated any need for metal nails. This method of boat construction allowed the Ancient Egyptians to disassemble the boat and carry the pieces, while traveling on land, until they reached a safe and navigable waterway. This ingenious construction technique allowed the Ancient Egyptians to travel deeper inland. Numerous Ancient Egyptian papyri from all ages testify to this method of land-water travel.

The Ancient Egyptians were famed for their shipbuilding throughout the Mediterranean Basin, even though the timber necessary for large-scale carpentry and for boat building was unavailable in Egypt. The Ancient Egyptians had a large fleet, as evident from the huge quantities of timber that they had imported from Phoenicia. The need for timber supplies explains, at least in part, the importance of the permanent settlement—a kind of protectorate—which the Egyptians had with the Phoenicians, from the earliest days of the Old Kingdom [c. 2575 BCE].

The Egyptians built a whole range of practical boats, well adapted to different uses and to the geography and climate for the transportation of both passengers and freight. The Egyptian ships traveled the waters of the Nile and the high seas, since the most ancient times. Ships varied enormously in size. Some of them were huge. Diodorus mentions one, made of cedar, built during Sesostris’ reign, which measured about 450 ft [140m].

All types of commercial and military vessels were known, more than 5,000 years ago, transferring goods to the northern shores of Britain, Ireland, and Europe. This was long before the Phoenicians became seafarers in the 1st millennium BCE.

In very early times, boat building was carried on extensively. Even under the Old Kingdom [2575–2150 BCE], boats were built of large dimensions, thus we hear of a

broad ship of acacia wood, 60 cubits long and 30 cubits broad. . .

was put together in 17 days. . .

There were some very large freighters, used for transporting grain, stone, bricks and even the gigantic obelisks, which were hewn out of a single block in the quarries of Sunt (Aswan), and then carried on the river to the site of the temple in Ta-Apet (Thebes/Luxor), and elsewhere.