They Rebuilt A 3500-Year-Old Ship To Retrace An Epic Egyptian Sea Voyage
Baboon mummies, ancient ships, and exotic lands
What images come to mind if I asked you to think of ancient Egypt? More than likely pyramids. Or perhaps a combination of sand, stone, pharaohs, and animal-headed gods.
Regardless, your mind focuses on land. Or at least mine does. Now, what if I told you the ancient Egyptians were a great seafaring people?
It sounds illogical. Egypt is an ancient spiritual kingdom, sitting in a desert. The only water associated with it is their famous Nile River. However, that’s only part of their story.
Joshua Mark at the World History Encyclopedia explains trade was a main factor of the kingdom’s growth. He says it had been firmly established in their Predynastic period (3150–2613 BC) with Mesopotamia and Phoenicia.
A few hundred years later Egypt stretched their arms out further, trading with Nubia and a far-off exotic land known as Punt. If the second doesn’t sound familiar, it’s for good reason. No one knows what Punt refers to.
Although drawings in various temples indicate a sea voyage with large ships was required to get there. Plus, it was fabulously rich. But the wonderous description of Punt and sketchy evidence of large…
