Nile waterscapes facilitated the construction of the Giza pyramids during the 3rd millennium BCE
Year: 2022
Type: article
Abstract: The pyramids of Giza originally overlooked a now defunct arm of the Nile. This fluvial channel, the Khufu branch, enabled navigation to the Pyramid Harbor complex but its precise environmental history is unclear. To fill this knowledge gap, we use pollen-derived vegetation patterns to reconstruct 8,000 y of fluvial variations on the Giza floodplain. After a high-stand level concomitant with the African Humid Period, our results show that Giza's waterscapes responded to a gradual insolation-driven aridification of East Africa, with the lowest Nile levels recorded at the end of the Dynastic Period. The Khufu branch remained at a high-water level (∼40% of its Holocene maximum) during the reigns of Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure, facilitating the transportation of construction materials to the Giza Pyramid Complex.
Institutions: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Aix-Marseille Université, Centre de Recherche et d’Enseignement de Géosciences de l’Environnement, Institut Méditerranéen de Biodiversité et d'Ecologie Marine et Continentale, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier, Travaux et Recherches Archéologiques sur les Cultures, les Espaces et les Sociétés, Université Toulouse - Jean Jaurès, Théoriser et Modéliser pour Aménager, Maison des sciences humaines et environnementales Claude Nicolas Ledoux, Université de Franche-Comté, Ain Shams University, State Key Laboratory of Estuarine and Coastal Research, East China Normal University, National Research Institute of Astronomy and Geophysics, École Pratique des Hautes Études, École Normale Supérieure - PSL, Archéologie et Philologie d’Orient et d’Occident
Language: English
Subfield: Archeology
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Award: G8452319742
OpenAlex ID: W4293484716