Pyramid of Khafre - The Pyramid Complex

The Pyramid Complex

Along the centerline of the pyramid on the south side was a satellite pyramid, but almost nothing remains other than some core blocks and the outline of the foundation.

To the east of the Pyramid sat the mortuary temple. It is larger than previous temples and is the first to include all five standard elements of later mortuary temples: an entrance hall, a columned court, five niches for statues of the pharaoh, five storage chambers, and an inner sanctuary. There were over 52 life size statues of Khafre, but these were removed and recycled, possibly by Rameses II. The temple was built of megalithic blocks (the largest is an estimated 400 tonnes), but it is now largely in ruins.

A causeway runs 494.6 metres (541 yd) to the valley temple. The valley temple is very similar to the mortuary temple. The valley temple is built of megalithic blocks sheathed in red granite. The square pillars of the T shaped hallway were made of solid granite and the floor was paved in alabaster. The exterior was built of huge blocks some weighing over 100 tonnes., There are sockets in the floor that would have fixed 23 statues of Khafre, but these have since been plundered. The interior made of granite of the Valley temple is remarkably well preserved. The exterior made of Limestone is much more weathered.

The pyramid was surrounded by a terrace 10 m (33 ft) wide paved with irregular limestone slabs behind a large perimeter wall.

Read more about this topic:  Pyramid Of Khafre

Famous quotes containing the words pyramid and/or complex:

    So universal and widely related is any transcendent moral greatness, and so nearly identical with greatness everywhere and in every age,—as a pyramid contracts the nearer you approach its apex,—that, when I look over my commonplace-book of poetry, I find that the best of it is oftenest applicable, in part or wholly, to the case of Captain Brown.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    In the case of all other sciences, arts, skills, and crafts, everyone is convinced that a complex and laborious programme of learning and practice is necessary for competence. Yet when it comes to philosophy, there seems to be a currently prevailing prejudice to the effect that, although not everyone who has eyes and fingers, and is given leather and last, is at once in a position to make shoes, everyone nevertheless immediately understands how to philosophize.
    Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)