Herodotus was telling the truth. In Egypt, found a merchant ship, in whose existence did not even believe scientists
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On the territory of the Gulf of Abu Kir, a merchant ship of the ancient Egyptians called “Baris” was found. His existence has long been questioned by scientists.
The first mention of such a vessel is still found in the writings of Herodotus, who visited Egypt in the V century BC. In his "History" he described the appearance of the ship and its structure in some detail.
He said that the sails of this vessel are made of papyrus. Moreover, it was made of long wooden “bricks” fastened with copper nails.
“When a ship’s wreck is built this way, cross beams are put on top. The ribs are not made at all, and the grooves are caulked with papyrus, ”the ancient Greek historian said.
The control system was also very unusual: “On the ship, only one steering wheel is made, which passes through the keel. Such vessels can walk up the river only with strong tailwind; they are towed along the coast."
Further, Herodotus describes in detail the mechanism of the ship’s movement and clarifies: “The Egyptians have a lot of such ships, and some of them have a carrying capacity of many thousands of talents.”
But until recently, there was no real evidence to the words of Herodotus. The Egyptologist Alexander Belov managed to confirm the existence of the "baris". He found that the ancient ship discovered by archaeologists, whose age is estimated at about 2500 years old, is the legendary merchant ship of the ancient Egyptians. Belov’s monograph Ship-17: Baris from Tonis-Heraklion was published by Oxford University Press.
The analysis of words from the text of Herodotus and the analysis of all fragments of the hull showed almost one hundred percent correspondence of the structure of the vessel to the ancient Greek description. This means that the missing "baris" is not just found, but also the fact that Herodotus quite accurately described what he saw with his own eyes.
