Page 111 - آثار مصر الفرعونية الجزء الأول

material at the end of the causeway. However, others
Egyptologists, because of the width of the side walls and
architectural elements of nearby tombs of close family members,
believed that there would have been a vaulted roof of brickwork.
Nevertheless, the causeway was never completed. Work seems to
have stopped at the point where it meets the west side of the old
Khufu quarry. From there to down to the valley temple, the
causeway was probably never more than a construction ramp for
delivering stone. Hence, we really do not know how it was to
connect to the valley temple. Yet some Egyptology resources
believe that it would have not begun at the west part of the valley
temple, but rather would have actually run along its whole south
side and part of its west side. They believe it was even accessible
from the storerooms in the valley temple's southern section.

The Mortuary Temple

Like Menkaure's predecessors on the Giza Plateau, his
mortuary temple was not built adjacent to his pyramid's east wall.
The original temple obviously remained partially uncompleted,
we believe, as a result of Menkaure's sudden death. Menkaure
began this mortuary temple, as had Khafre, with core blocks of
limestone that were locally quarried. The heaviest of these, found
at the northwest corner of the temple, is the heaviest known at
Giza. weighing some 200 tons.

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