How were Egypt’s pyramids built? The mystery may finally be solved

Scientists have discovered a long-lost branch of the Nile that would have run alongside 31 ancient pyramids.

People have long been fascinated with how the Egyptian pyramids were built, floating theories from the construction of expansive causeways to extraterrestrial assistance.

Now scientists have evidence to support another theory, centred around the discovery of a long-lost branch of the Nile that would have run alongside 31 ancient pyramids built between the 27th and 18th centuries BC.

Though the pyramids today sit on a sandy, desert plateau near the ancient Egyptian capital of Memphis, a newly published study maintains the region was once home to a bustling river branch that was likely a vital means of transportation.

Researchers named the 64-kilometre river branch Ahramat (the Arabic word for “pyramids”) and said it was likely used to float large stone blocks for the construction of the pyramids. Many of the stones originated from hundreds of kilometres south of where the pyramids stand today, with some weighing more than a ton.

The river likely also transported other equipment and people.

Geomorphologist Eman Ghoneim, the study’s lead researcher, told National Geographic she and her team from the University of North Carolina Wilmington believe the lost river “was a superhighway for ancient Egypt.”

The lost waterway was discovered using radar satellite imagery. The technology allowed scientists to identify buried rivers and ancient structures under the sand. Soil and sediment samples were also analyzed.

Researchers involved in the study, published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment, are the first to map the ancient waterway’s course. They claim Ahramat would have been just short of a kilometre wide in places, and more than 24 metres deep in others.