Grace Scott Core 6 & 7 March 1, 2013 Egypt Research paper Egyptian Boats During Egyptian studies, we have

learned about the great pyramids, pharaohs, gods and goddesses, but not Egyptian boats. I chose this topic because I like to sail, and I wondered how the Egyptians did it. I wondered, Why are they so oddly shaped? Who was the first to suggest and make a boat? How did they survive the rough waters of the Nile with just reeds and rope? The Egyptians used the boats for going down the Nile River, fishing, hunting animals like hippopotamus (which were rare) and other animals that they could find in the waters of the Nile. This shows that the Egyptians ate lots of food from the Nile River. The river was a valuable resource. One of the things that I learned was that some of the Egyptian boats were made out of papyrus. Why are they oddly shaped? The Egyptians used papyrus reeds which they bound together lengthwise using tightly woven wool rope. This is how the hulls of their boats were built. The shape of the boat was oddly formed because of the technique. Queen Hatshepsut was the first queen to make better trade by using boats that sailed to Punt on the coast on the Red Sea. The Queens boat was made out of cedar wood. Cocking (wool used now a days in between the ships planks, which keep the ship from sinking) was not used in the ancient Egyptian ships. For Queen Hatshepsut boat, the builders used bees wax and wool mixed together for the cocking. This is what archeologists think the Egyptians used to keep the boat from sinking into the Red Sea or the Nile. No one knows why the boats were so oddly formed, so differently from todays boats. The boats that went out to sea were more different from the ones that sailed on the Nile. Ships that sailed the Red Sea used wood rather than reeds for construction. They had a mast and obviously had a sail. The sail was made out of papyrus or lien cloth.

Researching the topic of Egyption boats was interesting to me. When I looked up Egyptian boats online, a lot of the results included King Tuts model boats in his tomb, and other model boats in others tombs. I was more interested in discovering Queen Hatshepsuts revisions to the trading process. I learned about this from class and from watching a NOVA video and telling my family about what I learned. I hope that you have learned more about Egyptian Boats yourself. I find that these boats are fascinating and I hope that they interest you as well. They certainly worked well for the Egyptians!

Bibliography

"Egyptian Papyrus Boat." Sailing vessels, sailers. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Mar. 2013. http://sailhistory.com/content/view/85/.

Building pharaoh's ship. Dr. Valrie Abita. Perf. Ward, Cheryl. Distributed by PBS Distribution, 2010. Film

Stratos, Anita. "Egypt: Barques, Barges, and Byblos Boats." Egypt Travel Guide - Tour Egypt. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Feb. 2013. <http://www.touregypt.net/ featurestories/ab