Arecent studypublished in the pedantic journalCommunications Earth & Environmentclaims that thepyramids of Gizawere construct alongside an almost 40 - nautical mile - long arterial blood vessel of the Nile river that no longer be today , having since been inter underneath desert and farmland .
The towering monuments at the Giza Great Pyramid complex were built over a period of nearly 1000 years ; some are more than 4500 years old . The complex is locate between the ancient cities of Giza and Lisht in an region that now rest on the boundary of the country ’s Western Desert . The region ’s inhospitable environment has long puzzledarcheologists , who for centuries wonder how Egyptian workers managed to move the 2.5 long ton stones that make up the pyramids .
In 2014 , researchers from the University of Amsterdamsuggestedthat the workers relied onengineering . feign they slid the stones over the desert open , as show by a rampart picture in the tomb of Djehutihotep , which was built around 1900 BCE , they speculated that the workers—172 per stone , harmonize to the house painting — may have wet the sand for reduce friction , making the building blocks easier to pull .
Even though most of the stones are think to have come from a quarry less than a Swedish mile away from theGreat Pyramid of Giza , enthrall them in this manner would have been a Herculean task — almost too Herculean for construction to have proceed in this manner .
The subject fromCommunications Earth & Environmentproposes that the Egyptians used water to lighten their load . Investigatinga theorythat the Nile used to branch out into arteries that no longer exist today , meditate authorEman Ghoneim — an Egyptian - American geomorphologist at the University of North Carolina Wilmington — looked at artificial satellite images of the Western Desert and conducted geologic surveys , discovering a watercourse that used to stretch alongside the now isolated pyramid complex .
Dr. Ghoneim and her co - generator speculate that the watercourse , which they declare oneself to name “ Ahramat , ” after the Egyptian word forpyramids , was buried under sands brush up by a major drought around 4200 years ago .
To make the building cognitive process even easier , Egyptian workers seem to have delve causeways connect the Ahramat to different building site , minimizing the space they would have to move the stones through the use of hands .
In addition to inspiring researchers to look for other dried - up branches of the Nile , theCommunications Earth & Environmentpaper offer the absolved answer as to why so many of Egypt ’s pyramids are located in one specific area — an area that , back in the day , was much more hospitable and well navigable than it is now .
