Ancient Egypt: Early Ship Construction

Khufu's Solar Boat. In modern ship construction a skeleton is built first which is then covered with a skin. During the Old and Middle Kingdoms ships were built from the outside in. This way of doing things was mostly due to a lack of timber suitable for keels, but continued for centuries after they began importing cedar wood from Byblos which was long enough for keels. Mortises were cut into the planks into which wooden tenons were inserted. The V-shaped holes did not penetrate the outer surface.