The Egyptian Pyramids remain some of the most awe-inspiring structures in history, ‘built over a 1,000-year period starting approximately 4,700 years ago’ (Bouschelle, 2024) their construction is still a mystery. ‘The largest pyramid field in Egypt is clustered along a narrow desert strip, yet no convincing explanation as to why these pyramids are concentrated in this specific locality has been given so far.’ (Eman Ghoneim et al., 2024) However, in 2024 archaeologists uncovered a plausible method that explains how the material needed to build these massive monuments came to site.
‘A team led by Eman Ghoneim, University of North Carolina Wilmington earth and ocean sciences professor, has discovered the pyramids in Egypt were built along a now abandoned branch of the Nile River, highlighting the importance of the river as a cultural artery and demonstrating how humans have historically been impacted by environmental change.’ (Bouschelle, 2024)
The pyramids were primarily made of limestone blocks, with the inner chambers featuring harder granite. ‘They built their tombs of stone since life after death was eternal’ (Macaulay, 1982) It is thought that workers quarried the limestone nearby using sleds. ‘Many quarries had sloping ways leading down from them, sometimes very steep, so that the blocks could be rolled down to the sleds’ (Clarke & Engelbach, 1990) and then transported further using rafts on water.
‘The presence of a long since dried up waterway, along which the rock was transported on large rafts, has long been suspected but nobody had any solid evidence showing that such a river had ever existed. However, by using a combination of radar satellite imagery, historical maps, geophysical surveys, and sediment coring (which is commonly used by archaeologists to recover evidence from samples) the team discovered that a branch of the River Nile did indeed once flow right past the Great Pyramids of Giza’ (Butler, 2024)
It has been speculated by many scholars that the ancient Egyptians used the Nile River for help transporting construction materials to pyramid building sites, but until now, this ancient Nile branch was not fully uncovered or mapped. (Eman Ghoneim et al., 2024)
‘The discovery may explain why these pyramid fields were concentrated along this strip of desert near the ancient Egyptian capital of Memphis, as they would have been easily accessible via the river branch at the time they were built. Additionally, Ghoneim and her colleagues found many of the pyramids had causeways that ended at the proposed riverbanks of the Ahramat branch, which they suggest is evidence the river was used for transporting construction materials.’ (Bouschelle, 2024)
These recent findings ‘highlighting the importance of the river as a cultural artery and demonstrating how humans have historically been impacted by environmental change.’ (Bouschelle, 2024) This exploration and analysis helps us to better understand the origins, culture, and the natural forces that contributed the pyramid construction. Continued research into our ancient architecture is more than just a glance into the past; it provides context, insight and fills gaps in our collective knowledge, answering the questions of history.
Link to the full report – ‘The Egyptian pyramid chain was built along the now abandoned Ahramat Nile Branch’ published 16th May 2024. https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-024-01379-7
References
Bouschelle, S. (2024, May 16). Research team discovers lost Nile River branch. Uncw.edu. https://uncw.edu/news/2024/05/researchers-uncover-buried-branch-of-nile-river
Butler, S. (2024, May 18). Mystery behind the construction of the pyramids solved. Geographical. https://geographical.co.uk/news/mystery-behind-the-construction-of-the-pyramids-solved
Clarke, S., & Engelbach, R. (1990). Ancient Egyptian construction and architecture. Dover Publications.
Eman Ghoneim, Ralph, T. J., Onstine, S., Raghda El-Behaedi, Gad El-Qady, Fahil, A. S., Hafez, M., Magdy Atya, Ebrahim, M., Ashraf Khozym, & Fathy, M. S. (2024). The Egyptian pyramid chain was built along the now abandoned Ahramat Nile Branch. Communications Earth & Environment, 5(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-024-01379-7
Macaulay, D. (1982). Pyramid. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Figures
Figure 1: A Bedouin man on a camel by the Pyramids of Khafre and Menkaure at the Giza Necropolis in Egypt https://www.livescience.com/who-built-egypt-pyramids.html
Figure 2: UNCW Professor Eman Ghoneim and her colleagues studying satellite imagery, geophysical surveys and sediment samples to confirm the location of a former branch of the Nile River. https://uncw.edu/news/2024/05/researchers-uncover-buried-branch-of-nile-river
Figure 3: The water course of the ancient Ahramat Branch https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-024-01379-7
