There’s an old saying that you can’t step in the same river twice. But a group of researchers have now retraced an ancient, buried Nile tributary — allowing historians to walk in the dried-up waterway path that probably proved instrumental in the construction of the 31 pyramids it once flowed past.
A report in Communications Earth & Environment employed satellite imaging, ground-penetrating radar, and soil samples to show that these famous structures — including the Giza complex — may have been built along a now dry 40-mile stretch of the river Nile. Many archeologists interested in ancient Egypt had long suspected that tomb and pyramid builders used a waterway to transport materials and workers to building sites.
“Nobody was certain of the location, the shape, the size, or proximity of this mega waterway to the actual pyramids site,” says Eman Ghoneim, a researcher with University of North Carolina Wilmington. “This is what motivated our research team to investigate.”
