Found at last

May 25, 2024 8:53 AM

long-lost branch of the Nile that ran by the pyramids: Geological survey reveals the remains of a major waterway that ancient Egyptian builders could have used to transport materials (Freda Kreier for Nature). Satellite images and geological data now confirm that a tributary of the Nile — which researchers have named the Ahramat Branch — used to run near many of the major sites in the region several thousand years ago. The discovery, reported on 16 May in Communications Earth and Environment1, could help to explain why ancient Egyptians chose this area to build the pyramids (see ‘Ancient river’).

Full article in Communications Earth & Environment, authors Eman Ghoneim, Timothy J. Ralph, Suzanne Onstine, Raghda El-Behaedi, Gad El-Qady, Amr S. Fahil, Mahfooz Hafez, Magdy Atya, Mohamed Ebrahim, Ashraf Khozym & Mohamed S. Fathy.

posted by bq (26 comments total)

neat! tangentially, the Temple of Dendur was moved to the the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, due to the Aswan Dam/waters rising
posted by HearHere at 9:20 AM on May 25 [3 favorites]

this is really cool.

I am delighted to know that another, ahem, brick in the wall of stupid theories about ancient aliens is laid down. see, they had a river going right there, to transport big blocks and all the stuff.
posted by supermedusa at 10:06 AM on May 25 [5 favorites]

Ima big fan of this channel
posted by torokunai at 10:26 AM on May 25

Know your tributaries!
posted by Czjewel at 10:30 AM on May 25

It's obvious that the Aliens diverted the river to get it out there. Much akin to how they assisted with the ancient Peruvian water irrigation systems. Sheesh, you can come up with all your high-falutin science explanations but it won't change the fact that there's aliens all the way down.
posted by symbioid at 10:37 AM on May 25

the Temple of Dendur was moved to the the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York

Feels a bit British Museum there. I mean, yes, New York is the logical place to take objects from Egypt.
posted by hippybear at 11:50 AM on May 25

Feels a bit British Museum there. I mean, yes, New York is the logical place to take objects from Egypt.

It was apparently more given by the Egyptians to the US as a thanks for helping preserve the monuments that would be flooded, in conjunction with UNESCO in the 1960s, rather than pillaged in the colonial era, so it could be worse. But, the wing it's in at the Met is named for the Sackler family, who you might hold responsible for the opioid epidemic, so there's that.
posted by LionIndex at 11:58 AM on May 25 [10 favorites]

Yes, The Temple of Dendur was a gift to the American people from the Egyptian government. We were instrumental in it's saving from being flooded and buried. Also, since 2021 the Met Museum has disassociated itself from the Sackler family and no longer features it's name on any of its galleries.
posted by Czjewel at 12:57 PM on May 25 [15 favorites]

Well, this is good news all around. And now we can get back to talking about how the aliens diverted the Nile to help the Egyptians build the pyramids.
posted by hippybear at 1:01 PM on May 25 [2 favorites]

It's obvious that the Aliens diverted the river to get it out there.

Enh, let’s skip these jokes. They were a lot funnier before we learned that the original ancient-aliens people were basically arguing that white people from another planet were a more believable idea than brown people capable of math and effort.
posted by mhoye at 1:16 PM on May 25 [12 favorites]

"We are made of stardust, our whole body consists of material that has been here before the beginning of time."

+Giorgio A. Tsoukalos
posted by clavdivs at 1:56 PM on May 25

our whole body consists of material that has been here before the beginning of time

I'm not sure... like....

Surely all the material that exists came into existence during the Big Bang, and it was all at first rather light elements but over time inside stars it was combined and recombined into ever heavier elements so we consist of material that is indeed stardust, but everything that our whole body exists of consists of material that has been generated since the beginning of time?
posted by hippybear at 2:08 PM on May 25

But does time really exist if there's no one around to waste it?
posted by dsword at 2:26 PM on May 25 [5 favorites]

That's getting into the observer question which as of yet has no real answer.

Does all of space-time exist all at once and only the time-bound creatures experience events as a sequence?
posted by hippybear at 2:39 PM on May 25 [1 favorite]

And then, careful, you're treading waters that by some religions are labeled as "predestination"...

It's all so complex and confusing and we need the Tralfamadorians to provide some answers.
posted by hippybear at 2:41 PM on May 25 [2 favorites]

It's obvious that the Aliens diverted the river to get it out there.

Enh, let’s skip these jokes. They were a lot funnier before we learned that the original ancient-aliens people were basically arguing that white people from another planet were a more believable idea than brown people capable of math and effort.

Maybe we can still make jokes about people that were ridiculous even if we don’t agree with their opinions? I mean, in what way is making fun of someone an endorsement of their beliefs?

posted by Gilgamesh's Chauffeur at 3:12 PM on May 25 [3 favorites]

That's getting into the observer question which as of yet has no real answer.

Not one that been observed yet, anyway.

Does all of space-time exist all at once and only the time-bound creatures experience events as a sequence?

It's a Whole Sort of General Mish-Mash.
posted by Greg_Ace at 3:27 PM on May 25 [2 favorites]

perhaps inquiry should shift to the teleological.

like Edgar Cayce.
posted by clavdivs at 3:30 PM on May 25

Going straight for the alien jokes is low-hanging fruit. I am much more interested in the theory that people from far older civilizations built the pyramids, among other things. No woo-woo, nothing supernatural, no aliens, just people. But people in civilizations much older than we think.
posted by zardoz at 3:52 PM on May 25 [1 favorite]

But how was the Temple of Dendur transported all the way from Egypt to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York? I presume aliens were involved; Americans aren't nearly sophisticated enough for such an undertaking.
posted by Faint of Butt at 3:57 PM on May 25 [4 favorites]

The aliens thing is one iteration of the ‘our ancestors, the dummies’ theory, as my archaeology professor used to call it. It’s called into play in dismissing astronomical positioning of the standing stones in the UK as well
posted by bq at 5:06 PM on May 25 [3 favorites]

I went to Metafilter for fascinating and informative discussion of ancient civilizations and all I got was this lousy alien joke.
posted by brambleboy at 9:05 PM on May 25 [2 favorites]

I mean, sure, we're all sophistos and in on the joke. But Chariots of the Gods? was a massively popular book, despite its author, Erich von Däniken, having multiple convictions for fraud and embezzlement, and its editor, Wilhelm Utermann, having literally been a Nazi. I sure was impressed by it when I was a kid. Simply stating an idea isn't really mockery unless there's some context.
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:09 PM on May 25 [3 favorites]

Utermann was more than literally "a Nazi", he was a very prominent Nazi, as the editor of the Völkischer Beobachter, which was the official "newspaper" of the NSDAP from the 20s until 1945, as well as the editor of a number of Hitler Youth and other propaganda.

And he actually was closer to being von Däniken's ghostwriter for his first two books, including Chariots of the Gods: when Däniken couldn't get a book deal, he changed the focus of the books and completely rewrote them to make them more commercially viable and, of course, (even) more racist.
posted by Rumple at 10:01 PM on May 25 [4 favorites]

A thing that annoys me about “aliens” as an attempted answer, beyond the racism and belief people in the past were dumb, is that it complacently fails to ask “how did they do that?” Like, the basing for the pyramids is remarkably level; how was that accomplished? Use of flooded channels as a level; the Egyptians knew *a lot* about the behavior of water, pretty unsurprisingly. How did they get the blocks on top of each other? There are some theories, many tested, that point toward possibilities. We will probably never now for sure, but it it’s a way more useful exercise than lazily imagining science fiction technologies. Humans solve problems; that’s neat!
posted by GenjiandProust at 3:55 AM on May 26 [9 favorites]

The thing that people focus on is the "how" and not the "why." There are any number of plausible explanations how the pyramids were built. What we can only guess at is why they were built in the first place, and I find that to be a much more interesting mystery than construction techniques. Probably because we don't have an answer.
posted by zardoz at 2:03 PM on May 27