An (extinct) river found next to the pyramids of Egypt:that's why it solves the mystery

An international study has discovered, using satellite images, the existence of a river that ran parallel to the strip of pyramids of Ancient Egypt:it was a branch of the Nile that became extinct

BOLOGNA – The mystery of the construction of the pyramids (for which even aliens were inconvenienced) is now a little less mystery.Because scholars have discovered that very close to the strip of pyramids built in Ancient Egypt, a branch of the Nile once flowed (the Ahramat branch) which now no longer exists.And therefore it is almost certainly along this river (of which no traces remained and until now its existence was not suspected) that the ancient Egyptians they transported the stone blocks then used to build the pyramids.Before we knew it, big questions remained about how they could have transported such heavy blocks to the desert where the pyramids were built.It must be said that already a few years ago, in 2017, scholars had found some documents (in particular a papyrus found by archaeologists in the port of Wadi Al-Jarf) which told of the transport of blocks along rivers, with boats similar to rafts.Except the river wasn't there.Or, rather, he hadn't been found.Now it turned out that it was there, but it was no longer visible.This was discovered by an international research team led by scientists from the University of North Carolina - Wilmington, who collaborated closely with colleagues from various institutes.Among those involved are the Department of Geology of Tanta University, the National Research Institute of Astronomy and Geophysics (NRIAG) in Cairo and Macquarie University.The study containing these new features is entitled “The Egyptian pyramid chain was built along the now abandoned Ahramat Nile Branch” and was published in Communications Earth & Environment.

More than 30 pyramids are found along the Pyramid Strip of the Valley of the Temples:the area is a desert strip between Giza and Lisht, on the border of the western part of the Sahara desert.Until now, there didn't seem to be any rivers.And the Nile is too distant to think that it was used to move the limestone and granite stone blocks used for the pyramids built between 4,700 and 3,700 years ago, from that of Giza to the great pyramid of Cheops to name just the most famous.

In this new study published in recent days (here is the link to the study in English), scholars have identified traces of a waterway 64 kilometers long:it's about a branch of the Nile, which flanked all the major pyramids.They decided to call it Ahramat (which means “pyramids” in Arabic).How did they find out?By resorting to the study of satellite images radar, with which they try to see 'under' the desert sand.From the images, some tracks seemed to suggest a river.And so they moved on to field investigations, with the aid of core samples:the hypothesis was confirmed.The scholars found a branch of the Nile 64 kilometers long and up to 500 meters wide, which ran parallel to the strip where the pyramids stand.The experts' thesis is that the river dried up 4,200 years ago due to a severe drought.

The coordinator of the study, Professor Eman Ghoneim of the Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences of the American university, explains:“Many of the pyramids, dating back to the Old and Middle Kingdoms, have causeways leading to the branch and ending with the Valley of the Temples which may have acted as river ports along it in the past. We suggest that the Ahrmat branch played a role in the construction of the monuments and that it was simultaneously active and used as a waterway for the transport of workers and building materials to the sites of the pyramids."