<p><strong>For the first time in centuries, a multi-ton limestone slab—one of dozens—floats free of the "tomb" of a 4,500-year-old, disassembled "solar boat" at the foot of the Great Pyramids in <a href="http://maps.nationalgeographic.com/map-machine#s=r&amp;c=30.008295161582705, 31.21325992047787&amp;z=13">Giza (map)</a>, <a href="http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/countries/egypt-guide/">Egypt</a>, on Thursday. </strong></p><p><strong>Below are hundreds of delicate wooden "puzzle pieces," protected by the climate-controlled tent built over the site in 2008.</strong></p><p>Once the months-long process of extracting the pieces is finished, researchers expect to spend several years restoring the ship before placing it on display in Giza's Solar Boat Museum near the <a href="http://www.nationalgeographic.com/pyramids/pyramids.html">Pyramids</a>. A similar ship found nearby has already been reconstructed and is on display in the museum. At about 140 feet (43 meters) long, the restored ship is thought to be a bit bigger than its still fragmented sister.</p><p>Solar boats played an important role in story of the afterlife in ancient Egyptian mythology. Each night the sun god Ra—in the form of the evening sun, Ra-Atum—was thought to sail through the afterlife in one boat to battle gods and beasts until he rose as the morning sun, Ra-Horakhty, and sailed his day boat across the sky.</p><p>Buried near the Great Pyramid, the buried sister boats were likely intended to assist Pharaoh Khufu on similar journeys during the afterlife.</p><p>(Take an<a href="http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/countries/ancient-egypt-quiz/"> ancient Egypt quiz</a>.)</p><p><em>—With reporting by Andrew Bossone</em></p>