Egypt: Pictures: Ancient "Solar Boat" Unearthed at Pyramids   National Geographic - June 25, 2011

Excavating a "Solar Boat" ... For the first time in centuries, a multi-ton limestone slab - one of dozens - floats free of the "tomb" of a 4,500-year-old, disassembled "solar boat" at the foot of the Great Pyramids in Giza (map), Egypt, on Thursday. Below are hundreds of delicate wooden "puzzle pieces," protected by the climate-controlled tent built over the site in 2008. Once the months-long process of extracting the pieces is finished, researchers expect to spend several years restoring the ship before placing it on display in Giza's Solar Boat Museum near the Pyramids. A similar ship found nearby has already been reconstructed and is on display in the museum. At about 140 feet (43 meters) long, the restored ship is thought to be a bit bigger than its still fragmented sister. Solar boats played an important role in story of the afterlife in ancient Egyptian mythology. Each night the sun god Ra - in the form of the evening sun, Ra-Atum - was thought to sail through the afterlife in one boat to battle gods and beasts until he rose as the morning sun, Ra-Horakhty, and sailed his day boat across the sky. Buried near the Great Pyramid, the buried sister boats were likely intended to assist Pharaoh Khufu on similar journeys during the afterlife.