Who discovered the Great Boat of Khufu?
   Brian, 15, Houston, Texas

Dr. dig responds:
Khufu's famous boat pit was opened on May 26, 1954, by Kamal el-Mallakh, who was working on behalf of the Egyptian Antiquities Service. It held a wooden boat, in pieces, which has been re-assembled by a team of restorers who spent almost 28 years working on the project. It is now displayed in a glass, boat-shaped museum alongside Khufu's pyramid. Made of cedar planks sewed together with fiber ropes, the full-size vessel is a copy of a papyrus reed boat. Unfortunately, the move to the museum has not been good for the boat and it has started to warp and shrink.

A second boat pit, also holding a dismantled boat, remains sealed and is the subject of a university conservation project. Five more boat-shaped pits have been excavated close to Khufu's mortuary temple, but these were empty when opened.