Skudelev, in the Roskilde Fjord, is best known for it's preserved Viking ships. The span of the Viking ship construction is well demonstrated in the five Viking ships found at Skuldelev . The ships, which were no longer in service, had been filled with stones and scuttled by the mid ­1000's in order to close one of the lanes leading into the important commercial town of Roskilde. In 1962 a sheet piling was rammed down around the closure, the water was pumped out and the ships excavated. The five excavated Skuldelev ships represent five different kinds of ships: two merchantmen, two warships and one ferry or fishing boat.