At http://archaeologynewsnetwork.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/c14-dates-question-… … seem to show modern humans emerged in the Near East at the same time as elsewhere in western Asia and Europe, around 40,000 years ago. This might end up being a bit of a tripwire but for the moment it seems to contradict the notion humans migrating Out of Africa came by way of the Levant.
At www.livescience.com/42902-giza-pyramids-port-discovered.html … a port and barracks have been unearthed near the Giza pyramids. It was all part of an excavation of an Old Kingdom town and it seems Giza had a thriving port (according to archaeologist Mark Lehner) connecting it to the Nile. It was possibly used to import granite from further down river, somewhere near modern Aswan. There is also plentiful evidence of links with the Levant (Byblos) etc.