Thebeswas the ruling capitalofancientEgypt during its most dominant eras, beginning with the Old Kingdom 4500 years ago, and is home to two of its most revered temples at Karnak and Luxor.
One of Dr Weiss's former students, Sarah Parcak, of Cambridge University, presented data to the meeting on how a third period of cooling and drying, 4, 200 years ago, destroyed the OldKingdom of Egypt.
Of course, rain-fed agriculture is even more vulnerable to climate change than the irrigated variety, as Ms Parcak's Cambridge colleague Lauren Ristvet showed the conference with her study of northern Syria during the same period as the fall of Egypt's OldKingdom.