Wadi El Gerf

Wadi el Gerf, or “El Gerf Valley, ” is located at KM 180 on the Red Seashore and is about 24 km from Za’farana. In 2011, a French excavation mission found the most ancient Ship’s Port ever. They discovered the docks, places where ships’ ropes were tied to the docks. They also discovered a small rectangular building used for the habitation of workers.

But the most important discovery was in 2013, when an Egyptian mission joined the French one to continue excavation; the missions found about 40 Papyrus written in Hieroglyphics letters dating from year 27 of Cheops’ reign as well as some “Ostraca” telling about daily life in this place. It is a sort of diary. On the Papyrus, it is registered that the workers in this Port are the same as those who worked to construct the Great Pyramids.

Dr. Zahi Hawas, the famous archeologist, describes this as “ The most important discovery in the 21st C” as they explain in detail how the Great Pyramid of King Cheops was built, and names workers who built this Pyramid and the main is that Egyptian has built it and there is no lost city under the Sphinx

The masterpiece of the 40-found Papyrus is the one belonging to a worker called ”Mer’r”. In this Papyrus, Mer’r.” tells us about the diary of the group of workers who were cutting and transporting limestone blocks from “Tora” mines on the East Bank of the Nile to Cheops Pyramid on the West Bank in boats floating on the Nile and in its water channels.