User:Hypnôs/sandbox/Pyramid complex of Khufu

The pyramid complex of Khufu (or mortuary complex of Khufu) is the assembly of structures associated with the burial and funerary cult of pharaoh Khufu at Giza. It dates to around 2600 BC in the Fourth Dynasty of Egypt. The centerpiece of the complex was the tomb of Khufu, the Great Pyramid. The funerary cult was practiced in two richly decorated temples which were linked by a causeway. The upper temple lies at the eastern foot of the pyramid. The lower one, called the valley temple, is situated near the floodplain next to a large artificial harbor. A small satellite pyramid and five boat pits for solar barques were also part of the complex.

Several tombs of family members and high officials of Khufu are located in the Eastern Cemetery next to the Great Pyramid. Among them are the three pyramids for his queens, eight double-mastabas for his children and their spouses, and the tomb of Ankhaf who was involved in the construction of the Great Pyramid.

Temenos
The pyramid is surrounded on all sides by a perimeter wall.

Drainage system

Possible stelae

Boat pits
Outside the pyramid's perimeter wall, five boat pits were dug for the burial of Khufu's solar barques: Two on the south side of the pyramid, two on the east side, and one aside the causeway.

Khufu ship

Satellite pyramid
Pyramid G1-d

Pyramid temple
East of the Great Pyramid stood a mortuary temple. It was dedicated to Khufu's 30th year of reign and the celebration of the Sed festival. It was accessed through the valley temple and the connecting causeway.

A large courtyard occupied most of the temple's area. It was plastered with irregular slabs of basalt. A drainage canal ran from the north towards the center where an altar might have stood.

Rectangular granite pillars supported the roof which surrounded the court and the path towards the inner sanctum, an elongated room on the west side of the temple.

The limestone walls of the temple were richly decorated with painted reliefs and hieroglyphic inscriptions.

Two hallways led away from the court: The northern allowed access to the pyramid, the southern access to the roof via a stairway.

Causeway


The pyramid temple and valley temple were connected by a monumental causeway. It's foundations were about 9 m wide, made of local limestone. On it, a roofed corridor was formed by two walls of fine white limestone which were decorated with painted reliefs depicting Khufu smiting his enemies, processions of his estates, and offering scenes.

The causeway was approximately 800 m long. It did not run at a right angle to the pyramid temple facade, but slanted about 14 degrees to the north for most of its course, changing direction due north-east about 150 m before its lower end.

Parts of the causeway were dismantled as early as 2000 BC, and some of stones were reused in the temple and pyramid of Amenemhat I. The section that adjoined the Giza plateau remained visible until the second half of the 19th century, when houses were constructed on its course, sometimes using the causeway's blocks as building material.

The oldest surviving description of the causeway comes from the Greek scholar Herodotus in his work Histories, from the 5th century BC: "For ten years the people were afflicted in making the road whereon the stones were dragged, the making of which road was to my thinking a task but a little lighter than the building of the pyramid, for the road is five furlongs long and ten fathoms broad, and raised at its highest to a height of eight fathoms, and it is all of stone polished and carven with figures."

Underpass
135 m away from the pyramid temple, a short tunnel passes under the causeway. It allowed people passage from the Eastern Cemetery to the north, where a stairway might have led down the plateau. Two pair of holes for wooden beams suggest that the tunnel may have been used for material transport as well.

The tunnel is 3 cubits or 1.57 m wide and 33.85 m long, leaving a ceiling of bedrock 1.20 m thick for a span of 10.15 m.

Valley temple
At the lower end of the causeway stood a second temple of Khufu, the so-called valley temple.

Reliefs
The two temples and the causeway connecting them were decorated with painted reliefs.

Other reliefs
Some of the relief fragments from Khufu's pyramid complex could not be attributed to a particular structure.

Queens' pyramids
Pyramid G1-a

Pyramid G1-b

Pyramid G1-c

Funerary cache of Khufu's mother
Hetepheres I

Mastabas of Khufu's children and their spouses
Hemiunu

Ankhhaf