Cheops’ Boat to Be Recovered, Restored : Archeology: Pharaoh’s vessel lies buried 11 feet beneath the sand in a pit beside his Great Pyramid.

Japanese and Egyptian experts plan to recover and restore a boat designed to carry the soul of Pharaoh Cheops on an eternal journey through the heavens.

Cheops’ boat, dismantled as his courtiers left it, lies buried in a limestone-covered pit 11 feet below the sand beside his Great Pyramid on Giza Plateau.

Egyptologists hoped that it would be safer left underground than exposed to modern pollution, but evidence five years ago showed that pollution, water and even insects had invaded the boat’s chamber.

Organizers of the recovery project say time is running out for the boat, which was buried 1,195 years before King Tut, 2,531 years before Cleopatra and 4,497 years before man walked on the moon.

“The boat is on our most-critical list,” said Zahi Hawass, antiquities director for the pyramids area and Sphinx.

The rescue project is a joint effort of Waseda University in Tokyo, which is financing it, and the Egyptian Antiquities Organization.

Japan has several other archeological projects in Egypt. Sakuji Yoshimura, project coordinator for the university, said his island nation, “looks favorably” on the challenge of saving Cheops’ boat.

“There’s an intimate relationship between Japanese people and boats,” said Yoshimura. “It’s significant for us to investigate the people’s oldest boat.”

Plans are to excavate and restore the boat, then display it in a specially designed museum. There is no estimate of the cost, but Yoshimura expects the work to take up to seven years.

The Pharaoh’s boat is the fraternal twin of one found in an adjacent pit in 1954, pulled from its grave and restored. The royal ship of Cheops, a 143-foot beauty built mostly of cedar, is the largest, best-preserved boat surviving from antiquity.

So good was its condition that its wood still smelled of cedar. Only 5% of the wood was unusable.

Scientists believe the second vessel has not been so lucky. Hawass said its condition has been a source of worry since a $250,000 National Geographic Society project inserted a miniature camera into the pit for a remote peek on Oct. 20, 1987.

American scientists studied pictures from the camera lowered through one of the pit’s 40 massive covering blocks. They noted water marks on the boat’s walls, shrinking wood and a brazen, black desert beetle.

It is perhaps built of sycamore, a weaker wood than cedar.

Yoshimura said two factors cause concern about the buried boat’s condition:

* The humidity inside the pit has risen since American experts took samples five years ago and today is 93%, a danger to the wood.

* There is a good possibility that the pit contains dead insects, which would give off carbon dioxide and bacteria that cause wood to decay.

If the boat’s condition is so bad that it cannot be restored, Hawass said, it may be left alone except for the insertion of a minicamera for tourist viewing.

He added, however, that ideally the project will save both of Cheops’ vessels.

In 1982, the royal ship went on display in a museum built atop its burial pit. Critics call the glass-and-concrete museum a dangerous hothouse.

Also, Hawass said, “The museum is ugly. No country would put up with such a treasure in such an eyesore. And the boat is endangered. The royal craft should be moved and the second boat excavated, assembled and put on display.”

One suggestion is to put both in an underground museum outside the pyramids area.

Cheops’ son and successor, Djedefre, dedicated both boats to his father when he ascended the throne in 2528 BC.

They appear to have served the religious function of facilitating the Pharaoh’s eternal journey across the heavens, the first during daytime, the second, still-unexcavated vessel at night.

Special slots were left in Cheops’ pyramid so his soul could leave it to board the boats.