for thousands of years it's been one of the world's great Mysteries just how were the Pyramids built so deep in the Egyptian desert now scientists say they have the answer they found evidence of a branch of the Nile long since dried up which they say was used to float the giant blocks needed to build the 4,000 year old structures to their destination earlier I spoke to Aiden Dodson professor of egyptology at the University of Bristol and asked him how this discovery can help us understand how the pyramids were built oh yeah it ties in very well with how we thought things were done for a while except that we'd always thought everything was being floated over during the Nile flood so we last for a couple of months a year now we know there is a branch of the Nile running close to Desert Edge that means that materials could be brought in year round which really changes our understanding of probably what the logistics are of pyramid building pointing out sorry I was just going to say would it explain how there are clusters of pyramids in different locations as well it would certain look looking at the topography it does suggest that certain areas are better from the point of view of of river access certainly and the pyramids they have a habit don't they of of revealing little nuggets of information over the years yeah although this is something which is very much in the detail um I think it's important to recognize that actually people talk about the mysteries of the pyramids in fact there are very few of them we know why they're built who they built them and when they were built it's more some little details Logistics and this is where this discovery of the the Nile Branch comes in that we actually can understand that we can they can bring in some of the materials year round rather than certain periods so it's that kind of say of of detail of logistics which BR this does rather than resolving any sort of major Mysteries because really they aren't really that many the the way of real Mysteries and um what will researchers now do with this information in terms of uh looking at the pyramids a new I don't think it's so much the pyramids we be looking at here a new it's more the whole topography because what this discovery of this new branch is it means that Egypt looked very very different from what we thought it did we'd always thought it was a single run of the Nile with Fields either side and then the desert now we know there's another Branch the Nile so a whole chunk of Egypt was effectively an island rather than being to the to one of the banks so I think the big issue is not so although everybody of looking at the pyramids as the big thing looking at how the landscape of Egypt is fundamentally different from what we expected it to be four thou 3 4,000 years ago I think that's really where the future research should be aimed Professor Aiden Dodson