Solar Barque Museum

Lonely Planet review

South of the Great Pyramid is the fascinating Solar Barque Museum. Five long pits near the Great Pyramid of Khufu once contained the pharaoh's solar barques (boats), which may have been used to bring the mummy of the dead pharaoh across the Nile to the valley temple, from where it was brought up the causeway and into the tomb chamber. The barques were then buried around the pyramid to provide transport for the pharaoh in the next world.

One of these ancient cedar-wood vessels, possibly the oldest boat in existence, was unearthed in 1954. It was carefully restored from 1200 pieces of wood and encased in a glass museum to protect it from damage from the elements. Visitors to the museum must help this process by donning protective footwear to keep sand out.