Queen Hatshepsut's Ship

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Ancient Egypt
15th century BC

Queen Hatshepsut was the first female pharaoh of Ancient Egypt.

She was known as "the queen who would be king," because she undertook more daring adventures and expeditions than any male pharaoh who'd come before her.

Deir el-Bahari Temple
Egypt

Here, in her tomb, is one of the most eye-catching testaments to her expeditions.

This artwork depicts a daring sea-journey to Punt, in present-day Somalia.

But it also provides archeologists with a mathematically accurate basis to recreate the Queen's journey.

Constructing the Ship

The carving in Queen Hatshepsut's tomb contains the only known image of the ship that sailed to Punt.

In 2009, an international team of archeologists began an audacious attempt to build a full-size replica of the ship, based on this image.

The team knew that the average Ancient Egyptian had been 165cm tall.

And the people on the ship in the carving measured 16.5cm.

So the team realized that the artwork was drawn to scale.

Scale:
Ratio between real object and model

Knowing that the artwork was scaled down at a ratio of 10 to 1, the team knew that they must scale up all the measurements they had taken by a factor of 10.

Following this principle, the team could simply measure each part of the painting, and so calculate the original dimensions.

Constructing the Replica

Once all the calculations were made, the hard work of building the ship began.

The team used traditional construction methods to painstakingly recreate every millimeter of the ship.

When construction was completed the boat began her maiden voyage.

Success - the boat was seaworthy, and the team sailed to Punt, and back again.

Their voyage proved as successful as Queen Hatshepsut's, whose ship returned from Punt laden with exotic animals, spices and gold.

Archeologists have since discovered these crates on Egypt's shores.

The inscription reads: "the wonderful things from Punt."