探索频道英语听力 消失的法老城市16

But if Bietak and Pusch had indeed found Piramess at Qantir, what was it that Montet had discovered at Tanis.

Once you've recognized Piramess is indeed at Qantir, you start wondering what on earth is Tanis thing. There are buildings there which really any detached observer know must come from Piramess, so what’re they doing there? Is it hoax? Have aliens drop them there?

Piramess had been found, but it seemed to be in two places at once. The buildings were in Tanis, but the foundations are beneath Qantir. How could this have happened? The answer is intriguing.

Rammesses the Great had chosen to locate his capital on the ancient Pelusiac branch of the Nile, and the river was its life blood, but the city was also at the mercy of the river, and one day, it would spell doom to Piramess. That moment came around 150 years after the death of Ramesses II. The Pelusiac Branch of the Nile silted up. It dwindled away until the river finally switched course all together, leaving the Venice of its day without water.

What happened was that the Pelusiac branch of the Nile which passed Piramess here was blocked in its lower reaches. The Pelusiac Branch of the Nile lost its waters to the Tanitic branch of the Nile, which became the main artery of the Nile traffic.

For Piramess, this spelt disaster. Now isolated from the world, it looked as though this magnificent city would have to be abandoned, but instead, after the death of Rammesses the Great, his successors decided to do something extraordinary.