Mystery of how the pyramids were built may have been solved

The discovery of an ancient branch of the Nile that once passed through Giza may help solve the mystery of how the pyramids were built. Although the enormous waterway, hundreds of meters wide, has long since dried up, it could have enabled the transport of the vast amounts of materials and workers needed to build the iconic landmarks thousands of years ago.

BODIES OF WATER MUST HAVE EXISTED

According to a report cited by Chip, researchers say the pyramids clustered along the western desert edge of the Nile floodplain indicate that this area may once have been served by a large waterway capable of supporting construction projects of enormous scale. Speaking to IFLScience, study author Dr. Eman Ghoneim said, “If there are pyramids everywhere in this specific area, there must have been bodies of water in the past that enabled or facilitated the transport of rocks and large numbers of workers to these locations.”

In her statement, she says, “So we know there was a waterway, there was a highway used by the ancient Egyptians, but nobody knows where it was,” and continues: “How big was this branch [of the Nile]? Where exactly was this branch? How close was this branch to the actual pyramid sites?”

To learn the answers to these questions, Ghoneim and other researchers used radar satellite data to scan the Nile Valley from space. Because radar waves can penetrate the ground, the images provided access to “an invisible world of information beneath the surface” and revealed the presence of a dried-up riverbed winding through desert and farmland for about 100 kilometers.

“It was probably very long, but at the same time the width of this branch in some areas was also very large,” Ghoneim says, adding: “In terms of width, we are talking about half a kilometer or more, which is something equivalent to the width of today’s Nile River at the site. So it was not a small branch. It was one of the main branches.”

The waterway that no longer exists, stretching from Faiyum to Giza, passes by 38 different pyramid sites and has therefore been named the Ahramat Branch by the researchers (meaning Pyramid Branch in Arabic). The team now plans to analyze soil core samples taken from the ancient riverbed to determine whether it was active during the Old and Middle Kingdoms, when the pyramids were built (that is, 3,700 to 4,700 years ago).

Although it is not possible to reach any definitive conclusion before confirming that the river branch existed during this period, there is considerable evidence suggesting that the branch really did play a role in the construction of the monuments. For example, as Ghoneim explains, “Many of these pyramids had a causeway that usually ended with something we call a valley temple, resembling a harbor or ancient port.” She says many of these valley temples are “located exactly on the bank of the branch we found.”

In addition to providing new perspectives on the construction of the pyramids, Ghoneim said research into ancient Nile branches could also help archaeologists uncover the secrets of ancient Egypt by locating other lost sites: “The main course of the Nile migrated over time in some areas to the east and in others to the west, as rivers sometimes do. As the branches disappeared, ancient Egyptian cities and towns were also covered with mud and vanished, and we have no idea where to find them.”

Ghoneim believes that by tracing the course of ancient waterways, researchers will have a higher chance of discovering these old settlements, all of which will help in understanding Egypt’s heritage.