The sacred boats – For the ancient Egyptians the Nile was the main way of communication, the boat was considered a privileged way of transport, so the boat could not be included in sacred and divine ambit. In fact, in Egypt the traditional solar cart was a boat. During the day, on the boat Meandjet, the sun traveled in the sky, while in the night it used the boat Mesketet to cover the inferior sky. The sovereigns of the V dynasty, ordered to build great stone ships that represented the Sun’s boat on earth.
All the solar divinities, and particularly the god Amon-Ra, had their wood boat, that was usually put in a hall, in the most hidden part of their sanctuary. During the processions, the god’s statue was brought on shoulder by the priests, to remember Ra’s journey in his divine navigation.
The pharaoh’s “solar destiny”, was to reach the Sun on his boat.
When the funeral belief was extended to all men, it was thought that every dead person’s soul could travel the nocturne world on the solar boat and give help in that dangerous crossing, during which it could run into mounds of sand or in monstrous creatures such as the snake Apep, that had taken the crocodile’s place, that was the terror in the river.
Maybe it was for this reason, that the Egyptians buried in the pyramids, some great boats or they put inside some models in scale.
It’s possible that the funeral boat represented the boat consecrated to Osiride, in Abido, in which you saw the dead person navigating towards the city to reach the god: “ May he peacefully get ashore to the beautiful west! May the mountain open in front of him and the western desert give him a hand… May he be taken by hand to the boat Neshmet on the way to the west and may he go in peace to Abido, where Osiride is”.
 

Cheope's solar boat