Massive wooden planks, ropes, and cargo boxes were found in a series of caverns near the Red Sea. They look like ruins, but of what? The impertinent minds of the researchers have eventually identified these as parts of the oldest seafaring ships ever discovered!
That ancient Egyptian mariner set sail on ocean waters as much as 4,000 years ago on voyages that spanned about 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) each way, is supported by the evidence found.
To obtain incense and other treasures from a mysterious place the Egyptians called God’s Land, or Punt, the newly found ships likely carried sailors on missions. This port, where the ships’ ruins are discovered, lay at a location known as Wadi Gawasis. And it is about 13 miles (21 kilometers) south of the modern city of Port Safaga.