20000217

Jesus boat

JERUSALEM: It took a crane and a top secret operation to move a boat that plied the Galilee in Jesus' time to its permanent museum home in time for an anticipated rush of Christian pilgrims.

The tourist attraction that has become known as ''the Jesus boat'' was move on Tuesday to a specially built room at a museum in northern Israel, where visitors will be able to see it in full view for the first time.

"I feel great," said Nitsah Kaplan, who manages the Yigal Allon Center. "We haven't slept for several nights for fear that something would happen."

Two swimmers discovered what has become known as the "Jesus boat" at the bottom of the Sea of Galilee in 1986. Its wood had been preserved by the mud in the Galilee, actually a freshwater lake.

It was dated to Jesus' time, and its structure matched contemporary descriptions of boats used in Jewish-Roman nautical battles just decades after Jesus' death.

Scientists submerged the 8.2-meter (26.5-foot) hull Ñ made up of seven different types of wood Ñ in a synthetic wax to preserve it.ÑAP