Page 86 - آثار مصر الفرعونية الجزء الأول

The Valley Temple

The valley temple of Khafre's Giza complex, which is one of
the best preserved Old Kingdom temples in Egypt. As a
masterful work of ancient Egyptian monumental architecture, it
was cleared of sand and in 1869 this temple, along with other
monuments at Giza, became the backdrop for the ceremonial
opening of the Suez Canal.

The temple was fronted on the east by a large terrace paved
with limestone slabs, through which two causeways led from the
Nile canal. Just about in the middle of the terrace, fragments of
what may have been a small, simple, wood and matting structure
was unearthed that may have been the location of a statue
depicting Khafre. However, others believe that this was a tent
used for purification purposes, though known examples of such a
structure are only found in a few private tombs.

In 1995, Zahi Hawass re-cleared the area in front of the
Valley temple and in doing so. discovered that the causeways
passed over tunnels that were framed with mudbrick walls and
paved with limestone. These tunnels have a slightly convex
profile resembling that of a boat. They formed a narrow corridor
or canal running north-south. In front of the Sphnix Temple, the
canal runs into a drain leading northeast, probably to a quay
buried below the modern tourist plaza.

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