He was followed by his brother Khafre, whose reign lasted longer than his father's, not less than twenty-five years, but perhaps as long as twenty-nine.
The Architectural Features and Construction Materials of Khafre’s Pyramid Complex
Khafre chose to build his pyramid on a hill behind the pyramid of his father Khufu, and there is no doubt that Khafre's pyramid group is one of the greatest buildings in the ancient state, but we note that his engineers and craftsmen did not reach the mastery of their colleagues in the era of Khufu.
It is only a few meters less in height than his father's pyramid, as its original height was 143.5 meters and the length of the side of its square base is 215.5 meters, while its interior is simple if compared to the Great Pyramid, and it has two entrances from the northern side.
 |
| King Khafre in Ancient Egypt |
The Preservation and Dismantling of the Pyramids: Medieval Reuse of Limestone Blocks
This pyramid, like other pyramids, was covered on the outside with excellent limestone stones that were removed from it and others in the Middle Ages, starting from the thirteenth century AD, to use them and other remaining stones from the tombs and temples in Giza, Heliopolis, Memphis, its mountain and other monuments, to build the walls of Cairo and some of its mosques and the homes of the rich, but taking stones from pyramids and temples for construction was continuous until the nineteenth century.
The rest of the pyramid group is fortunately in a better condition than that of the Khufu pyramid, and the visitor to the area can see the remains of his funerary temple, the Valley Temple, and the remains of the ascending road connecting the two.
He can also see around the pyramid the places where the boats needed for the journey of the sun were placed, and at least five of them were found, and he can also see the remains of the workers city on the western side of it, divided into 110 halls and accommodating between 3,500 and 4,000 workers.
The Architectural Layout of Khafre’s Funerary Temple and Its Connection to Royal Palaces
The funerary temple of this pyramid gives us an idea of what the architecture of temples in general reached at that time and also gives us an idea of what the palace of the king or other wealthy people was like.
The visitor enters through its eastern door at the end of the ascending road, and passes through a narrow vestibule that leads to two large halls, each of which had granite columns on its roof, and then sees a large roofless hall with huge stones loaded on large columns, followed by five small rooms, each of which was likely built for one of the names of the five kings, and that their walls were decorated with drawings of the king.
The Religious Role of Funerary Temples in Honoring the King-God
Then comes a special part of the temple that was only allowed to be visited by the priests in charge of serving it, and in it was the temple and the stores in which they put the tools they needed to make offerings or perform prayers to the king-God.
The Historical and Religious Importance of the Valley Temple of Khafre
The road between this temple and the Wadi Temple was roofed, and we see some remnants of its walls at the Wadi Temple, whose walls and columns were built from Aswan granite, and they built some of its rooms and its floor from alabaster blocks that they brought from quarries in the eastern mountain behind Tell el-Amarna
This temple was used in some religious rituals related to washing, cleansing and mummifying the body, and at the same time it was an entrance to the pyramid group. It has two doors that lead to a rectangular foyer and then to a hall mounted on square granite columns that extend in its center, forming another foyer, the two forming the shape of the letter (T), next to each column in the rectangular part was a statue of the king.
The Diorite Statue of Khafre: A Masterpiece of Ancient Egyptian Sculpture
The statues of Khafre were scattered throughout this temple, some of which were made of diorite stone, including the famous statue that is considered a sign of Egyptian art and represents its owner sitting on his throne with the god Horus in the form of a falcon behind his head to protect him, and this statue and other statues of this king have survived because the priests of the temple once dug a deep hole in the eastern rectangular lobby or called them those statues that remained in that place until they were found.
The Artistic Achievements of Ancient Egyptian Sculptors in the Reign of Khafre
The art of sculpture reached its peak during the reign of Khafre and the Egyptian artist was able to completely control the toughest types of stone, and it is enough for a person to stand in front of this statue made of diorite, a material harder than granite and basalt, and see the success of the artist in the expressions that appeared on his face and his accuracy in showing the muscles of the body, and his appearance in general, to realize the extent of the progress of the Egyptian artist in his art, a progress that he himself did not surpass in the following eras.
The Symbolism and Mysteries of the Great Sphinx of Giza Associated with Khafre
One cannot mention the Giza pyramids without finding himself obliged to mention the Sphinx, the huge statue crouching on the edge of the desert, which has occupied a great place in the literature of the world, and writers have written about it since the days of the Romans many poems and woven legends around it, and they have always wondered what secrets it hides.
 |
| The Pyramid of Khafre and the Great Sphinx of Giza, photo by Hajor, 2002 (CC BY-SA) |
The Origin and Purpose Behind the Creation of the Great Sphinx of Giza
The truth is that there is no longer a secret to hide. The excavations of the Antiquities Authority in 1926, and again in 1936, revealed everything and we are now certain that this large statue cut into the rock of the mountain in the form of a crouching lion with a human head is nothing but a statue of King Khafre of the second pyramid, and that the rock that was prepared was part of a quarry from which Khufu's workers took some of the stones needed to build the Great Pyramid and left this rock because it is not a good stone except in its upper layer. When Khafre decided to build his pyramid close to his father's pyramid, he had to deviate the road between the two temples to avoid this quarry and made his road run on its edge and finally ended at the Valley Temple that we have mentioned.
The Mythological Interpretation of the Sphinx: Strength and Intelligence in a Single Form
There is no doubt that the presence of that rock was disfiguring the place, so the supervisor of the work saw that he took advantage of it to make a statue of his master king, his body in the image of a lion, which is the strongest animal, and his head in the image of the head of Khafre himself, that is, he was a combination of strength and reason, then he repaired the parts of the quarry and built a temple in front of it.
Related articles
References
- Lehner, Mark. The Complete Pyramids: Solving the Ancient Mysteries. London: Thames & Hudson, 1997.
- Hawass, Zahi. The Secrets of the Sphinx: The Quest for the Hidden Chamber. New York: HarperCollins, 2000.
- Gardiner, Alan. Egyptian Grammar: Being an Introduction to the Study of Hieroglyphs. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1957.
- Petrie, William Matthew Flinders. The Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh. London: Macmillan, 1883.
- Redford, Donald B., ed. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt. 3 vols. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.
- Wilkinson, Toby A. H. The Complete Temples of Ancient Egypt. London: Thames & Hudson, 2000.
- Ziegler, Charles. The Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt. New York: Macmillan, 1999.
- Bauval, Robert, and Graham Hancock. The Message of the Sphinx: A Quest for the Hidden Legacy of Mankind. New York: Crown, 1996.
- Harris, Michael, and David Macaulay. The Pyramids of Giza. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, 2004.
- Wilkinson, Richard H. The Complete Temples of Ancient Egypt. London: Thames & Hudson, 2000.
