Memphis, 1991

The Abusir Drill Core Survey, Egypt

“…Furthermore, the sand horizon confirms that this lake could not have survived from ancient times, as suggested by Emery (1965, 8), and that the area is more likely to have been dry and arid during the classical Pharaonic period. When considered alongside earlier suggestions this sand lens indicates that there was an eastward movement of desert sands at Giza, Saqqara and Lisht during the First Intermediate Period (Giddy and Jeffreys 1992). This sequence appears consistently throughout the Memphite region and is more indicative of a progressive accumulation rather than a large, single episode of sand deposition.…”

The Egyptian pyramid chain was built along the now abandoned Ahramat Nile Branch

“…Accordingly, the Ahramat Branch was initially positioned further west during the Old Kingdom and then shifted east during the Middle Kingdom due to the drought-induced sand encroachments of the First Intermediate Period, "a period of decentralization and weak pharaonic rule" in ancient Egypt, spanning about 125 years (2181-2055 BCE) post Old Kingdom era. Soil cores from the drilling program at Memphis show dominant dry conditions during the First Intermediate Period with massive eolian sand sheets extended over a distance of at least 0.5 km from the edge of the western desert escarpment 21 . The Ahramat Branch continued to move east during the Second Intermediate Period until it had gradually lost most of its water supply by the New Kingdom.…”

“…In the area of Abu Rawash north 29 and Dahshur site 11 , settlements from the Early Dynastic and Old Kingdom were found to be covered by more than 3 m of desert sands. During this time, windblown sand engulfed the Old Kingdom settlements and desert sands extended eastward downhill over a distance of at least 0.5 km 21 . The abandonment of sites at Abusir (5 th Dynasty), where the early pottery-rich deposits are covered by wind-blown sand and then mud without sherds, can be used as evidence that the Ahramat Branch migrated eastward after the Old Kingdom.…”

Brill's Companion to Herodotus

“…Beyond that he does not go. Metals he mentions, gold, copper, silver, and iron all featuring at some point, but there is no awareness of sources of supply or the 26 Recent excavations strongly indicate that the settlement of Memphis moved gradually southwards during its long history, and that the site of 'Min's' Memphis lay to the north of the fifth-century site (Giddy, Jeffreys, and Malek (1990) 13; Giddy and Jeffreys (1991 ) 6;and Giddy and Jeffreys (1992), 2). 27 The Fayum basin is a natural formation created by wind erosion.…”