The “Rock of the Boats” is perhaps the most significant rock art station among the pile of boulders constituting the Hodein Magal rock art site discovered by Leo Frobenius in 1926. It includes three boat depictions, complete with squared sails, and stering hoars. These boats are of Pharaonic age, and likely date back to the Middle Kingdom. They superimpose an assemblage of cattle and wild fauna figures. Among the wild animals are noteworthy an ibex and a rhinoceros. This latter is exceptional since rhinoceros are unreported in the rock art of the central Eastern Desert. The hull of the boat at the centre of the panel follows the back line of an older cattle figure. This composite petroglyph decorates the book cover of the rock art catalogue published by Pavel Červíček (1974), devoted to the southern sector of the Eastern Desert, also known as the North Etbai.
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