India, Sept. 24 -- For many centuries, there has been one intriguing question regarding the Great Pyramid of Giza that has baffled historians and engineers alike. How did the ancient Egyptians transport millions of tons of stone across the desert without wheels or advanced technology? This question may have a partial answer in a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Geoarchaeologist Hader Sheisha and her team examined fossil pollen buried deep in the ground near Giza, using it to reconstruct 8,000 years of water-level changes along a long-lost branch of the Nile. They named it the Khufu branch, after the pharaoh who commissioned the Great Pyramid.

Their findings indicate that the channel was sufficientl...