When the Egyptians Sailed on the Red Sea

This multi-awards film is the tale of an extraordinary human and scientific adventure. An adventure in which we are plunged into the technical and psychological world of the Egyptians 3,500 years ago.

On the walls of the Deir el-Bahari temple in Luxor, a certain bas-relief has particularly intrigued Eyptologists. It depicts five boats setting sail for the distant land of Punt, ordered by their queen, the powerful Hatshepsut.

Although it had been believed that the Pharaoh's fleets only sailed up and down the Nile, the fresco at Luxor suggests something entirely different - Hatshepsut's expedition allegedly sailed via the Red Sea to reach the African coast, south of the Empire.

Could the Egyptians have also been a great sea-faring people?

To test this theory, a team of archaeologists decided to research the matter by building a boat identical to the ones the Egyptians had made three thousand years earlier.