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SHIPS AND BOATS OF EGYPT

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Bianca
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« Reply #45 on: November 23, 2008, 02:36:24 pm »








Sea cargoes?



It would have been the wooden boats that undertook the long sea journeys and which carried
the heaviest cargos on the river Nile, including stone for building from Aswan.

To give additional strength, the hulls of larger vessels from the end of the Old Kingdom onwards
were equipped with thick ropes running around the hull, just below deck level. These rope streng-
theners are known as ‘truss-girdles’. Yet more rigidity was provided by a ‘hogging-truss’, a thick
rope that ran above the deck, from the bow to the stern. The hogging-trusses could be tightened
as necessary and helped to prevent the bows and sterns of the ships from sagging.

We know that the ancient boats were capable of carrying large cargoes. Queen Hatshepsut of the
Eighteenth Dynasty organised a large trading expedition to the land of Punt (which is presumed to
be on the Red Sea coast). Detailed scenes from her funerary temple at Deir el Bahri show the boats
and their cargoes. Probably built of cedar, her boats were around twenty-five metres long, with room
on either side for fifteen oarsmen. The shape of the hull is semi-papyriform and the sternpost of the
boats ends in a large, decorative papyrus flower. A small platform is provided at the bow and the stern,
but there is no central cabin. A large, thick hogging-truss runs the length of the hull to both strengthen
it and keep its shape. The ends of the large deck beams can be seen projecting through the hull above
the water level. We know that Egyptian wooden boats must have also sailed on the open sea, trading
with the countries around the eastern Mediterranean.

It is also from the reign of Hatshepsut that we have records of the building of some of the largest wooden
vessels in Ancient Egypt, or indeed in the Ancient or Modern world. Huge barges were built to transport her
obelisks from Aswan, where they were quarried, to Thebes, where they were set up in the Temple of Amun
at Karnak.

The surviving standing obelisk of Hatshepsut at Karnak is 29.6 metres high and, with an estimated weight of
323 tons, is amongst the largest obelisk ever erected.

It is estimated that the obelisk barge may have been over ninety-five metres in length and thirty-two metres
wide. Too large to be equipped with a sail and not very manoeuvrable, the barge would have been towed down stream by smaller vessels, also using the current, from Aswan to Thebes.

Hatshepsut’s relief showing the barge is very detailed, but it is still unclear if it was built to carry
one or two obelisks. A new discovery of a docking area in the granite quarries at Aswan may, when
fully studied, give some indication as to the size of the barge it could hold.
« Last Edit: November 23, 2008, 02:39:01 pm by Bianca » Report Spam   Logged

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