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| (iStockPhoto/holgs) |
NEWSLINE PAPER,- There is something that still makes experts wonder: why do dozens of ancient Egyptian pyramids have been found in the rough desert, far off the banks of the Nile?
More than 100 pyramids were built between 4700 and 3500 years ago as the great tombs of Egyptian pharaohs.
31 of them, including the pyramids of Dahshur, Giza and Saqqara, are scattered along the edge of the western desert of Egypt, a few kilometers from the Nile.
Now, new research has revealed that.
Quoting the New Scientist, Friday (17/5/2024) the dozen pyramids were not built on a piece of rugged and unfriendly land.
Geological surveys show that the building was built along the now-disappeared branch of the Nile.
"Since ancient times, the Nile has provided food for Egyptian settlements and served as a major water corridor that enabled the transportation of goods and building materials in the past," said Tim Ralph of Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia.
For that reason, most of the cities and major monuments were built near the banks of the Nile and its surrounding branches.
Researchers have long thought that the Nile might once have a branch that flows through the site of construction.
This branch of the river is used to transport a large number of people and resources needed to build the pyramid.
To make it clearer, the researchers attempted to investigate it by looking at radar satellite images and altitude data in the area.
The depression on the landscape suggests that the old waterways probably stretched 64 kilometres past the pyramid, between the city of Giza in the north and the village of Lisht in the south.
After researchers had a rough picture of the location of the river branch, researchers took samples of the soil core and sediment along its path and found the sandy river base hidden under what is now agricultural land or desert.
"We estimate it to be between 200 and 700 meters wide and at least eight meters deep," Ralph said.
The canals found around 31 pyramids seem to end on the banks of the ancient Nile.
Source : New Scientist