The inhospitable location has long puzzled archaeologists, some of whom had found evidence that the Nile River once flowed near these pyramids in some capacity, facilitating the landmarks’ construction starting 4,700 years ago. “This is the first study to provide the first map of the long-lost ancient branch of the Nile River.”Ghoneim and her colleagues refer to this extinct branch of the Nile river as Ahramat, which is Arabic for pyramids. Ancient Egyptians likely used the now-extinct Ahramat Branch to build many pyramids. Eman Ghoneim et alThe ancient waterway would have been about 0.5 kilometers wide (about one-third of a mile) with a depth of at least 25 meters (82 feet) — similar to the contemporary Nile, Ghoneim said. Most likely, a period of drought and desertification swept sand into the region, silting up the river, Ghoneim said.

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Persons: CNN —, ”, Ghoneim, ” Ghoneim, Nick Marriner, ” Marriner Organizations: CNN, University of North, University of North Carolina Wilmington’s, Branch, National Science Foundation, French National Centre for Scientific Research Locations: Giza, University of North Carolina, Ahramat, Egypt, Paris