Page 87 - آثار مصر الفرعونية الجزء الأول

The causeways connected the Nile canal with two separate
entrances on the Valley temple facade that were sealed by huge,
single-leaf doors probably made of cedar wood and hung on
copper hinges. Each of these doorways were protected by a
recumbent Sphinx. The northern most of these portals was
dedicated to the goddess Bastet, while the southern portal was
dedicated to Hathor.

The temple was laid out in almost a square ground plan. It is
situated just next to the Great Sphinx and its associated temple.
Not surprisingly, since the valley temple was a gateway or portal
to the whole complex, it is very similar to the fore part of
Khafre's mortuary temple. Its core wall was built of huge blocks
that sometimes weighed as much as one hundred and fifty tons.
This inner core was then covered by pink granite slabs, a material
used extensively throughout the complex that was quarried near
Aswan far to the south. This wall was slightly inclined and
rounded at the top, making the whole structure appear somewhat
like a mastaba tomb.

Between the two entrances to the valley temple was a
vestibule with walls of simple pink granite that were originally
polished to a luster. Its floors were paved with white alabaster. A
door then led to a T-shaped hall that made up a majority of the
temple This area too was sheathed with polished pink granite and
paved with white alabaster, though it was also adorned with

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