Discovery of Water Stream Used to Transport Pyramid Stones... Could the 'Alien' Construction Theory Be Resolved? [Global Issues+]

Discovery of Tributary Sedimentary Layers Connected to the Nile River
From Racism to Alien Construction Theory Emerges

[Image source=AP Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunwoo Lee] Evidence that may help solve some of the mysteries surrounding the construction of the Egyptian Giza Pyramids, known as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, has emerged, drawing global academic attention. It has been confirmed that there was a tributary connecting the Nile River to the pyramids, greatly strengthening the theory that river water was used to transport the stone blocks.

This is expected to significantly change the perception of pyramid construction, which until now included theories that extraterrestrials with far superior technological civilizations built them. The Egyptian authorities have reportedly been very sensitive to such alien construction theories, viewing them as products of racial discrimination.

Discovery of the 'Khufu Tributary' Connecting the Nile River and Giza Pyramids

According to foreign media including The New York Times (NYT) on the 3rd (local time), an international research team led by environmental geographer Hader Seisha from the French 'European Centre for Research and Education in Environmental Geosciences (CEREGE)' announced in the US journal 'Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)' on the 30th of last month that they secured traces of a Nile tributary through pollen fossils found in sediment layers drilled around the northern Giza Pyramids in Egypt.

The study confirmed the existence of a Nile tributary connecting the Nile River about 7 km away to the Giza Pyramids, suggesting a high possibility that stone blocks were transported via this waterway. The research team named this tributary the 'Khufu Tributary' after the largest pyramid of the Giza complex, the Pyramid of King Khufu.

The team drilled five sites along the presumed Khufu Tributary over several years, collecting sediment samples spanning thousands of years. By analyzing pollen grain fossils in the samples, they identified 61 species of plants including ferns and palm trees. Through these plants, they traced environmental changes over approximately 8,000 years and confirmed that waterside plants such as bulrushes and papyrus once thrived around the Khufu Tributary area.

According to the research team, during the period when the Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure pyramids were built (2686?2160 BCE), the tributary maintained about 40% of its water level, sufficient for transporting materials without flood risk, making it suitable for pyramid construction. However, from around 1350 BCE, the water level gradually decreased over centuries, making material transport impossible and ending pyramid construction. By around 332 BCE, when Alexander the Great conquered Egypt, the tributary had dried up, transforming the area into the pyramid necropolis as it is today.

Stacking 2-ton Stone Blocks, 2.3 Million in Total... Construction Techniques Still a Mystery

How the massive stone blocks used in pyramid construction were transported has long been a mystery. Especially for the largest pyramid of King Khufu at Giza, which stands 147 meters tall with a base length of 230 meters, approximately 2.3 million limestone and granite blocks averaging over 2 tons each were used, raising doubts about the construction techniques.

Previously, scholars hypothesized that the Nile River was used to transport materials and that canals might have been dug to the construction site, but this had not been proven. Although the quarries for granite and limestone used in the pyramids were located near the Nile, the construction site was quite distant, focusing attention on how the stones were transported from the river to the site.

This new research is expected to largely resolve the mystery of stone transportation. However, exactly how these enormous stones were stacked remains unclear.

Alien Construction Theory Originating from Racial Discrimination

Some have even proposed the alien construction theory, suggesting extraterrestrials built the pyramids because their construction would be difficult even with modern heavy machinery. Science fiction films based on the idea that aliens built the pyramids, such as the 1994 movie 'Stargate,' have also been produced.

Elon Musk, CEO of the famous electric vehicle company Tesla, has also supported the alien construction theory. According to CNN, in August 2020, he tweeted, "The pyramids are the work of aliens," which sparked international attention. The Egyptian government strongly opposed Musk's tweet, turning it into an international issue. At that time, Egypt's Minister of International Cooperation, Rania Al-Mashat, even invited Musk to visit Egypt to verify how the pyramids were built and to see the tombs of the pyramid builders.

The Egyptian government's strong reaction is said to stem from the interpretation that the alien construction theory originated from 19th-century racial discrimination. During the early 19th and 20th centuries, when Egypt was a British colony, the British claimed that Africans could not have built such advanced architectural structures like the pyramids.

Western scholars, immersed in white supremacy at the time, believed the pyramids were not built by the intellectually inferior Africans but by extraterrestrial beings, giving rise to the alien construction theory. It is hoped that the discovery of the Khufu Tributary will help dispel such racial discrimination.