The Egyptian Ra

Reed boats, rafts and dugout canoes were the oldest vessels people used for fishing and travel. Reed boats were sealed with a tar-like substance to keep water out. Excavations in Kuwait have found the remains of a seven-thousand-year-old reed boat, and similar boats have been built since ancient times in Peru and Bolivia, with a variant on Easter Island. In ancient Egypt the most famous example is the basket of bulrushes in which the infant Moses was set afloat.

Papyrus, which grew in abundance along the Nile and was also used as writing material, was the main reed for Egyptian boats. A boat of around 3200 BC might have been about 16.5 m long, 2.7 m wide and 1.5 m deep, with a single square sail held between two spars: the boom at the foot of the sail and the yard at the top.

About the model

The model is built entirely of papyrus and is one of the ships Denis designed himself from historical research and scholarly estimates, rather than from a kit or plans.