JICA's
Miyahara Chie paid a visit to the Grand Egyptian Museum's conservation
laboratories and got an update on restoration work partly funded by the
Japanese government. Written By/ Nevine El-Aref.
 |
JICA's Miyahara Chie observes restoration work conducted
on King Khufu’s second solar boat
|
Miyahara
Chie, the deputy director-general of JICA's Middle East and Europe Department,
visited the GEM's conservation laboratories and was updated on work to restore
the ancient wooden boat, a project that is partly funded by the Japanese
government.
Eissa
Zidan, supervisor-general of boat restoration work, told Ahram Online that Chie
was very enthusiastic about the restoration project and hopes to see the craft
reassembled and put on display at the GEM soon.
Two
boats belonging to Pharaoh Khufu were discovered inside two pits in 1954 as
Egyptian archaeologists Kamal El-Mallakh and Zaki Nour were carrying out
routine cleaning on the southern side of the Great Pyramid of Giza.
After
its initial discovery, the first boat was removed piece by piece under the
supervision of restoration expert Ahmed Youssef, who spent more than 20 years
restoring and reassembling it. The boat is now on display at Khufu’s Solar Boat
Museum on the Giza Plateau.
The
second boat remained sealed in the neighbouring pit until 1987 when it was
examined by the American National Geographic Society in association with the
Egyptian Office for Historical Monuments.
In
2009, a Japanese scientific and archaeological team from Waseda University
headed by Sakuji Yoshimura offered to remove the boat from the pit, restore and
reassemble it, and put it on show to the public. The launch of the project
involved a $10 million grant from the Japanese government.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Your feedback is important to us!
We invite all our readers to share with us their views and comments about this article.