Khafre’s Valley Temple

Giza

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You approach the Sphinx through this temple that once sat at the edge of a small artificial lake, connected to the Nile by a canal – it was in this way that construction materials were brought to the area at the start, and later it was how worshippers came to visit the temple. The sturdy building is filled with beautiful pink-granite columns and alabaster floors.

Look in the corners, where the pink-granite facing stones fit together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. The temple originally held 23 statues of Khafre, which were illuminated with the ancient version of mood lighting, through slits between the top of the wall and the flat roof. Only one of these statues, all carved in the hard black stone diorite, has been found intact – it is now in the Egyptian Museum.

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