THE Egyptian Pyramid's may have been intended to tower above a lush, green stretch along the river Nile amid the arid western Sahara.
But something happened, and now the Great Pyramid's poke out of a "a narrow, inhospitable desert strip".
Roughly 4,700 years after construction on these ancient wonders first began, scientists from the University of North Carolina Wilmington may have solved the mystery over the the pyramid's placement.
Attempting such an architectural feat five miles from the nearest river has puzzled experts.
But soil samples and satellite imagery suggest that chain of pyramids - 31 in total - may have originally been built along a 64km-long-branch of the river Nile.
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This branch of the Nile would have stretched the greenery that flourishes beside the primary channel further out into the sands.
But it no longer exists.
Scientists believe it has long been buried beneath windblown sand.
The river branch, nicknamed Ahramat by researchers, may have even disappeared before the pyramids were even finished being constructed - a feat which took roughly 1,000 years.
This long-lost river branch may have been key to transporting the necessary materials to build the pyramids.
“Many of the pyramids, dating to the Old and Middle Kingdoms, have causeways that lead to the branch and terminate with Valley Temples which may have acted as river harbors along it in the past,” researchers write in a newly published study.
“We suggest that the Ahramat Branch played a role in the monuments’ construction and that it was simultaneously active and used as a transportation waterway for workmen and building materials to the pyramids’ sites."
Researchers found that many of the pyramids had causeways which ended at the proposed riverbanks of the Ahramat branch.
The team, led by Eman Ghoneim, used geophysical surveys and sediment cores to find river sediments and former channels beneath the lands more modern surface.
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Our research offers the first map of one of the main ancient branches of the Nile at such a large scale and links it with the largest pyramid fields of Egypt.
Eman Ghoneim, lead researcher on the study
They believe a significant drought some 4,200 years ago could be the answer to why this branch of the Nile no longer exists today.
“Our research offers the first map of one of the main ancient branches of the Nile at such a large scale and links it with the largest pyramid fields of Egypt,” Eman Ghoneim, lead researcher on the study.
Future research to find more extinct Nile branches could help unlock more secrets about Egypt's ancient history.
