Nile waterscapes facilitated the construction of the Giza pyramids during the 3rd millennium BCE

Hader Sheisha; David Kaniewski; Nick Marriner; Morteza Djamali; Gamal Younes; Zhongyuan Chen; Gad El-Qady; Amr Saleem; Alain Veron; Christophe Morhange

doi:10.1073/pnas.2202530119

Nile waterscapes facilitated the construction of the Giza pyramids during the 3rd millennium BCE

Hader Sheisha, David Kaniewski, Nick Marriner, Morteza Djamali, Gamal Younes, Zhongyuan Chen, Gad El-Qady, Amr Saleem, Alain Veron, Christophe Morhange

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

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.

Original language	English
Article number	e2202530119
Journal	Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Volume	119
Issue number	37
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2202530119
State	Published - 13 Sep 2022
Externally published	Yes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2022 the Author(s). Published by PNAS. This article is distributed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND)

Keywords

Giza Harbour
Great pyramid
Nile

ASJC Scopus subject areas

General

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1073/pnas.2202530119License: CC BY-NC-ND

Cite this

Sheisha, H., Kaniewski, D., Marriner, N., Djamali, M., Younes, G., Chen, Z., El-Qady, G., Saleem, A., Veron, A., & Morhange, C. (2022). Nile waterscapes facilitated the construction of the Giza pyramids during the 3rd millennium BCE. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 119(37), Article e2202530119. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2202530119

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title = "Nile waterscapes facilitated the construction of the Giza pyramids during the 3rd millennium BCE",

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.",

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Sheisha, H, Kaniewski, D, Marriner, N, Djamali, M, Younes, G, Chen, Z, El-Qady, G, Saleem, A, Veron, A & Morhange, C 2022, 'Nile waterscapes facilitated the construction of the Giza pyramids during the 3rd millennium BCE', Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol. 119, no. 37, e2202530119. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2202530119

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T1 - Nile waterscapes facilitated the construction of the Giza pyramids during the 3rd millennium BCE

AU - Sheisha, Hader

AU - Kaniewski, David

AU - Marriner, Nick

AU - Djamali, Morteza

AU - Younes, Gamal

AU - Chen, Zhongyuan

AU - El-Qady, Gad

AU - Saleem, Amr

AU - Veron, Alain

AU - Morhange, Christophe

PY - 2022/9/13

Y1 - 2022/9/13

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AB - 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.

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Nile waterscapes facilitated the construction of the Giza pyramids during the 3rd millennium BCE

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

UN SDGs

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