 Umm el-Qa'ab is a royal necropolis that is about one mile from the Abydos boat graves where early pharaohs were entombed.The Abydos boats are the predecessors of the great solar boats of later dynasties upon which the Pharaoh joined the Sun God Ra and together journeyed down the sacred Nile during the day.They would have had many of the important attributes and metaphors that were attached to the Solar Barks of later dynasties, and indeed perhaps should be called Solar Boats of an earlier design.