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Sunday, November 22, 2009

Photo: Canal Linking Ancient Egypt Quarry to Nile Found


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Experts have discovered a canal at an Aswan rock quarry that they believe was used to help float some of ancient Egypt's largest stone monuments to the Nile River. Most ancient Egyptian stonework, like the obelisk erected by Hatshepsut seen here (top), was quarried and shaped in Aswan.

The discovery is the first concrete evidence for a long-held theory that ancient workers transported their massive stone monuments directly by water.

Now scientists are concerned that saltwater corrosion will destroy drawings of wading birds (bottom left), dolphins (bottom right), and other graffiti left behind by the workers.

Obelisk photograph by Mladen Antonov/AFP/Getty Images; graffiti photographs courtesy Katarin Parizek, Penn State