El Mallakh was born to a
Coptic Christian Orthodox family from
Upper Egypt on 26 October 1918 and died on 29 October 1987. He graduated from the
School of Fine Arts in 1943 with a degree in
Architecture and then received a master's degree in
Egyptology from
Cairo University. In 1954 El Mallakh discovered two pits just south of the
Great Pyramids of
Giza on Cairo's western outskirts, he found
Cheops' first boat, the oldest wooden relic of
Ancient Egypt Kingdom. El Mallakh maintained that a nearby pit contained another boat. His theory was that the two boats were to ferry
Cheops' soul on a perpetual circle through the heavens, one for day time one for night. Other
Archeologists denied the pit but it was an American
National Geographic society who discovered it which indeed held a boat. Kamal worked in the
Giza area for 14 years where he discovered
Khufu ship. In his later life he became one of the founders of the
Cairo International Film Festival while working as a journalist for
Al-Ahram newspaper. ==Books==