The twist of Egypt ’s outstanding pyramids of Giza some 4,500 years ago is one of the humanity ’s greatest achievement . Among the many doubt and complexness surrounding the pyramids , however , is how their vast " building blocks " were hauled to the construction site . It turn out , we can thank a long - lose ramification of the River Nile .
When we ideate the pyramids of Giza today , we expect to see them surround by a vast plain stitch of guts with the Greater Cairo city sprawl behind them . The main consistence of the Nile is currently some 8 kilometers ( 5 miles ) away , which is a vast space if you ’re stuff huge quantities of stone across the sand .
Over 4,000 old age ago , however , a now - defunct limb of the Nile known as the Khufu outgrowth could be found carving just past the site of the Giza pyramid complex . It ’s long been suspected that the Khufu branch was a vital venous blood vessel of ancient Egpyt , assist its worker totransport materials to the pyramidsfrom elsewhere . However , its history has remained little silent .
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Map shows how the Khufu branch of the River Nile In Egypt formerly reached the edges of the Great Giza pyramid complex. Image credit: PNAS
As report in theProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , researchers from France managed to gain a detailed history of this river part from pollen grains press out from the floodplain .
By tracking the increment and death of over 61 different plants along the flood knit , they show the rise and fall of pee level in the river ’s branches over 8,000 years of ancient Egyptian history .
Most notably , it showed that the water of the Khufu branch rise significantly during theAfrican Humid Period , which sweep from 14,800 geezerhood ago until 5,500 long time ago .
However , piss levels of the Khufu leg appear to have been relatively high for some sentence after the African Humid Period , allowing the river to remain navigable until the Great Pyramid of Giza , dedicated to pharaoh Khufu , was constructed around 4,500 years ago .
At some point , it ’s potential this lost arm of the Nile may have hit as far as the Great Sphinx of Giza , which stands lofty at the front of the complex .
While it ’s clear that the Khufu arm of the Nile could have helped transport construction material closer to the Giza pyramid building complex , many other detail around the pyramids ’ construction are still unsealed .
TheGreat Pyramid of Gizaoriginally stood at 146.6 meters ( 481 feet ) grandiloquent , consisting of over 2.3 million big stone blocks weighing 6 million tonnes in total . theory be , but there ’s currently no unanimous idea of how the colossal closure were placed one on top of another in a highly complex structure feature a warren ofinner transit and tomb .
And no , it certainly was n’t with the aid of aliens .
