The Valley Temple of Chephren
(Khafre)
The Valley Temple is assumed to have been built for Pharaoh Khafre (Chephren). The Temple is adjacent to the Great Sphinx, and large limestone blocks that were quarried from the Sphinx enclosure were used to build the outside wall of the Temple. The interior of the temple is built of granite, also large, and brought downriver from Aswan. The floor of the Temple is alabaster, a rather soft stone that should show more wear than it does.
Entrance to Chephren's Valley Temple.
An interesting aspect of Khafre's Pyramid is the very large stones used in parts of the lower courses of the Pyramid, the surrounding plaza, and the Mortuary and Valley temples. (60-200 tons / 50,000-180,000 kilograms, compared to the more commonly used pyramid stones of 2-3 tons / 1800-2400 kilograms.) These are an indication to some minds that the Pyramid was built upon earlier construction. The Valley Temple is connected to the pyramid by a 500 yard long causeway. The preservation of many of the undecorated granite columns is excellent. However, the outer wall of the Temple is built from limestone blocks, which have eroded.
The limestone north wall of the Valley Temple of Chephren.
Khafra's Pyramid Temple and Granite Temple
by W M Flinders Petrie, 1897.
On the east side of Khafra's pyramid stood a temple. The
vast blocks of rock which formed the core of the walls
still remain, and some of the granite casing of the
interior is yet in place. It is encumbered with masses
of chips, among which are pieces of the furniture of the
temple, statues, vases, etc.
From this temple a causeway led down a line of the
rock plateau, where a gradual and easy slope could be
laid out. It is evident that this is a road of convenience,
made exactly where it could be laid out with the best
gradient, and distinctly not square with the pyramid or
the temple, being about 15 degrees south of east. It was
doubtless the road up which the material was
brought for the building of the pyramid and the temple,
like the roads belonging to the other pyramids. It was
paved with fine stone, recessed into the rock bed.
This road led down to the plain, and must have been
open at the end when the material was being taken up
it.
After the pyramid and its temple were finished, the
road was utilized as a junction between the pyramid temple
at the top of it, which was built square with the
pyramid, and another (granite) temple near the plateau's edge, which
was built with a skew entrance in continuation of the
road.
This is a point of great importance as
proving the age of the granite temple. Both of these
temples are oriented square to the points of the compass,
but the road between them is askew for reasons of its
construction.
The lower temple passage is all one
with the line of the skew road. This skew passage
was not adapted to the road after the
rest of the temple was built, for there are no signs of
any reconstruction. The doorway in the corner of
the great hall is askew in the wall, so that it could not
have been altered without pulling down all that end of
the building. The courtyard on the top of the temple,
and the stairs of access to the top, are also dependent on this skew passage, which is built in one compact
mass with the whole body of the temple. Hence the
granite temple must be subsequent to the roadway and
to the building and finishing of the pyramid and temple
of Khafra, and as his statues were found in this
temple, the building of it may be almost certainly
attributed to Khafra.
Lower level, Chephren's Temple in an 1899 photograph.
This granite temple, often misnamed the temple of
the Sphinx, is really a free-standing building on the
plain at the foot of the hills, but it is so much encumbered by sand that it is often supposed to be subterranean.
The upper part of it now consists only of the great
blocks of inferior rock which formed the core of the
walls. The lower story of it inside is perfect, and
outside of it the casing still remains, showing that it
was decorated with the primitive pattern of recessing.
The origin of this pattern is unknown. Probably it is
derived from brick decoration, as it is found equally in
the earliest brickwork in Egypt (Medum) and in Babylonia
(Wuswas; see Loftus, Chaldea, 172-179).
The
whole of the surfaces inside are of red granite, or white
alabaster. The essential parts of it are
a T-shaped hall with the stem toward the pyramid, and
a long hall parallel with, and adjoining, the head of the
T.
From the T-hall opens a chamber with three long
recesses, each divided into an upper and lower part
by a thick shelf. These recesses are of alabaster, and
from their form probably contained sarcophagi. This
chamber, and one opening from the entrance passage,
retain their roofs complete, with ventilating slits along
the top of the wall.
Over the T-hall was an open
court, reached by a sloping way, which turns in the
thickness of the wall, from the entrance passage. The
long hall is higher than the T-hall, and had a large
recess above each of the doors which occupy the ends
of it. These recesses seem as if they might be for
statues, as there is no access to them, and they were
closed at the back.
The diorite statue of Khafra was found in this hall,
thrown into a well, or subterranean chamber. This is
now filled up, and no proper account was ever given by
the explorers.
Excerpted from: A History Of Egypt,
From the Earliest Times to the XVIth Dynasty,
by William Mathew Flinders Petrie, London, 1897.
Granite columns, Valley Temple of Chephren.
Edited Excerpts from: The Journal
of Lt-Colonel George A. F. Fitzclarence
We proceeded to the remains of what is supposed to have been a portico, (the mortuary temple of Chephren / Khafre), to the east of the Second Pyramid. The temple has three entrances, one to the east, one to the north, and, I think, another to the south, but at the moment this large building was so secondary an object in comparison with the wonder of the world before me, that I did not pay so much attention to it as I have since wished I had.
View from Chephren's Valley Temple looking East toward the Nile.
It is absolutely a horizontally built Stonehenge. Some of the blocks of limestone are of an immense size; and two which were particularly pointed out to me, one upon the other, on the east side, forming part of the north-east angle, Belzoni told me were 24 feet long (7 meters), 8 in breadth (2 1/2 meters), and the same in thickness (est. 70 tons / 63,500 kg). From their great age they are perfectly honeycombed and united together, though their original separation is distinctly seen from their sharp edges being rounded by time. The walls of this portico are not above twice, or at the utmost thrice, the breadth of these stones in height.
What may be under the ground I know not; but it appears to me that this temple either never was completed, or the finish of the building must have been of much lighter and less lasting materials than what is left.
The vastness of these works makes it possible that in an early age magnitude was the object aimed at by the builders. The Mortuary Temple of Chephren in the size of its stones will not yield to any other remains in Egypt. From its great antiquity, and its lack of sculpture, it is possible that ornamenting these immense masses may have been the addition of a subsequent age.
(It seems the lower level of the Temple was still buried in the sand at the time of Mr Fitzclarence's visit.)
Excerpt from:
"Journal of a route across India,
through Egypt to England
in 1817 and 1818"
by Lt. Colonel George Fitzclarence
Published in 1819.
Adapted and edited for PYMD.com, 2006.
West wall, Chephren's Valley Temple
by William Henry Goodyear.
Panorama facing west, 1907.
Plan of Chephren's Valley Temple,
east is at the top,
by E. A. Wallis Budge.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Diorite Statue of Chephren
Valley Temple of Khafre.
Statue niches are on the floor,
treasure hunters have damaged them.
Photograph by Joseph Hawkes.
Twenty three shallow niches line the floor of the Valley Temple of Chephren. In 1858 Auguste Mariette discovered a diorite statue of Chephren buried in the well of the Valley Temple, along with some pieces of other statues. Mariette found the statue's base matched the niches in the temple, causing him to conclude that there were 23 of these statues. The statue that Mariette found, now in the Cairo Museum, is considered one of the world's greatest artworks. Perhaps the other 22 statues still lie buried near Chephren's Valley Temple.
Statue of Chephren from the Valley Temple.
Now in the Cairo Museum.
Photograph from EgyptArchive.
A Very Special Statue
by W M Flinders Petrie, 1897.
The statues of Khafra have brought us face to face
with him, and caused his features to be almost as well
known in our times as in his own reign.
The great diorite statue is a marvel of art. The precision
of the expression combines what a man should
be to win our feelings, and what a king should be to
command our regard. The subtlety shown in this
combination of expression, the ingenuity in the overshadowing
hawk, the technical ability in executing this in so
resisting a material,
all unite in fixing our
regard on this as one of
the leading examples of
ancient art. Six other
statues of lesser size were also found in the granite
temple, carved in diorite and green basalt. A smaller
statue of fine work in alabaster was in the group of early statues lately found at Sakkara. All of
these are now in the Ghizeh (Giza) Museum.
Excerpted from: A History Of Egypt,
From the Earliest Times to the XVIth Dynasty,
by William Mathew Flinders Petrie, London, 1897.
Pharaoh was believed to incarnate the falcon god Horus on Earth.
Here Horus protects and guides the Pharaoh,
although he cannot be seen by the common people viewing him from the front.
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