Because its apex is in better
condition and it is located on an elevation (of about 10 meters),
Khafre's
sometimes appears to be the largest of the three great
Pyramids
of the Giza Plateau.
However, originally it was some three meters lower than its
neighboring pyramid
belonging to Khafre's father,
Khufu. In fact,
the walls of Khafre's pyramid are steeper than the Great Pyramid of
Khufu (53o 10' as opposed to Khufu's 51o 40'),
so it contains considerably less mass. It's name is "Khafre is
Great".
Khafre may
have, prior to his succession to the Egyptian throne in the
4th Dynasty, been
named Khafkhufu, and according to
Stadelmann, may have built a large double mastaba (G
7130-40) in the East section at Giza. However, his older brothers,
Kauab and
Djedefre apparently died early and upon taking the throne of
Upper and Lower Egypt, his name was changed to Khafre.
As one of the
grandest pyramids in Egypt, his construct has been much studied,
with a history of modern research not unlike that of Khufu's
monument. In 1818, the strongman of Egyptology,
Giovanni Belzoni, succeeded in penetrating into the pyramid's
interior after a failed attempt by
Giovanni Caviglia only a year earlier. Belzoni discovered the
pyramid's "upper entrance" and managed to investigate its
subterranean sections. However, the first extensive exploration of
the monument was made in 1837 by
Perring.
Mariette directed
excavations of the pyramid's Valley Temple, which is also related to
the Great Sphinx,
in 1853. A year later, he was responsible for unearthing one of
ancient Egypt's most famous and beautiful statues, that of Khafre on
his throne with the protective outstretched winds of the falcon god,
Horus,
sheltering his head from behind. While
Petrie
also worked on this pyramid complex while at Giza, the first
systematic modern excavations did not occur until the German Ernst
von Sieglin expedition of 1909-1910 under the direction of Uvo
Holscher. Later in the 1930s, Hassan unearthed the boat pits
associated with the pyramid, and in recent times,
Lehner and
Hawass have investigated the pyramid complex under the auspices
of the American Giza Plateau Mapping Project. Their work has mostly
centered around modern geodetic measuring techniques, which has
yielded considerable knowledge on both the pyramid, and the
archaeology of architecture.
Overall ground plan for the Khafre complex
The Valley Temple
The
valley temple of Khafre's Giza complex, which is one of the best
preserved
Old
Kingdom temples in Egypt. As a masterful work of ancient
Egyptian monumental architecture, it was cleared of sand and in 1869
this temple, along with other monuments at Giza, became the backdrop
for the ceremonial opening of the
Suez Canal.
The temple was
fronted on the east by a large terrace paved with limestone slabs,
through which two causeways led from the Nile canal. Just about in
the middle of the terrace, fragments of what may have been a small,
simple, wood and matting structure was unearthed that may have been
the location of a statue depicting Khafre. However, others believe
that this was a tent used for purification purposes, though known
examples of such a structure are only found in a few private tombs.
In 1995, Zahi
Hawass re-cleared the area in front of the Valley temple and in
doing so, discovered that the causeways passed over tunnels that
were framed with mudbrick walls and paved with limestone. These
tunnels have a slightly convex profile resembling that of a boat.
They formed a narrow corridor or canal running north-south. In front
of the Sphnix Temple, the canal runs into a drain leading northeast,
probably to a quay buried below the modern tourist plaza.
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 sixteen single block pink
granite pillars, many of which are still in place today, that
supported architrave blocks of the same material, bound together
with copper bands in the form of a swallow's tail. These in turn
supported the roof.
Here,
in the dim light provided by slits at the tops of the walls, stood
as many as twenty four statues of the king (though one statue base
in the middle that is larger than the others may have been counted
twice) made from diorite, slate and alabaster. This line of statues
continues along the cross of the T shaped hall ending at a doorway
that leads to a corridor from which a stairway ramp winds clockwise
up and over the top of the corridor before terminating on the roof
of the valley temple.
On the south
side of the roof was a small courtyard, situated directly over six
storage chambers also built of pink granite and arranged in two
stories of three units each. These were embedded in the core masonry
of the T shaped hall. Symbolic conduits lined in alabaster, a
material specifically identified with purification, run from the
temple's roof courtyard down into the deep, dark chambers below.
These symbolic circuits run through the entire temple, taking in
both the chthonic and the solar aspects of the afterlife beliefs and
of the embalming ritual for which the valley temple was the stage,
according to some Egyptologists.
Hence,
the Polish scholar Bernhardt Grdseloff proposed that purification
rituals were carried out on the roof terrace in a tent especially
constructed for that purpose. Afterwards, he theorized that the body
was embalmed in the temple antechamber. A French Egyptologist,
Etienne Drioton proposed a similar view, only switching the
locations to the antechamber for the purification and the embalming
on the roof terrace. However, Ricke correctly pointed out that these
types of rituals required considerable water that was only available
near the canal, so at best the priests of the valley temple could
have only performed the rituals symbolically.
At the other
end of the cross in the T shaped hall (north), an opening gave way
to a passage, also paved with alabaster, that led to the northwest
corner of the temple and there joined the causeway.
The
Causeway
A corridor cut
from the rock separated the ruined causeway from the
Great Sphinx
temple and the valley temple. The causeway stretches some forty-six
meters connecting these structures with the the mortuary temple just
before the main pyramid. It did not run exactly along the east-west
axis of the pyramid and mortuary temple, but instead somewhat to the
southeast of it due to the fact that the valley temple was erected
slightly out of line with the Great Sphinx and the mortuary temple.
Archaeologists believe that causeway was probably a covered corridor
built of limestone and lined on its exterior by pink granite blocks.
Within it may have been decorated with reliefs.
The Mortuary Temple
The
causeway enters the mortuary temple near the south end of its front
facade.
The mortuary
temple, unlike later pyramid complexes, did not border directly
against the pyramid but was rather separated from its east wall by
the pyramid courtyard. Rectangular in its ground plan, it is
oriented east-west and has walls built of local limestone that are
cased in finer limestone, a technique introduced in this structure.
Inside, the building was almost completely lined with granite. The
mortuary temple has, in its elemental design, the basics for the
mature mortuary
temples
ultimately perfected by
Sahure
at Abusir, including
an entrance hall, an open courtyard, five statue chapels, various
storehouses and an offering hall. This structure marks a real
architectural advance, being both larger then previous examples and
for the first time, including all five elements that were to become
standard.
The entrance
to the mortuary temple in the east led through to a small
antechamber adorned with a pair of monolithic pink granite pillars.
About the entrance area were a few small chambers (two granite
chambers immediately to the left of the entrance, and at the other
end of a short corridor running along the front of the temple, four
more chambers lined with alabaster) that are thought to have been
storage annexes or serdabs. Ricke, in his investigation of the
mortuary temple, found this area strikingly similar to the valley
temple, and considered it a kind of repetition. He designated this
area as the "ante-temple" (Vortempel) and the remaining area of the
mortuary temple as the "worship temple" (Verehrungstempel).
This
antechamber in turn led into the entrance hall itself where there
were twelve more similar pairs of pillars to those in the
antechamber. This entrance hall had an original ground plan of an
inverted T. Hence, the first part of the entrance hall was
transverse, with recessed bays. It led in turn to a rectangular
section. Off of the transverse part of the hall, two long, narrow
chambers branched off from either end, and it has been suggested
that huge statues of the king once graced these dim passages.
After
the entrance hall there is a large, open courtyard situated in
approximately the middle of the temple. Paved in slabs of alabaster
and oriented north-south, along its sides runs a covered ambulatory
with a flat limestone roof made of slaps supported by broad pillars
of pink granite. The lower part of this
ambulatory was
formed by a dado in red granite and limestone. It was covered by
brilliantly colored reliefs of which only fragments remain. Ricke
thought that the ambulatory was fronted by 3.75 meter high statues
of Khafre sitting on his throne overlooking the courtyard, but
Lehner thinks these were standing statues of the ruler. Lehner bases
his belief on the discovery of a small statuette in the workshops
west of the pyramid. This artifact shows the ruler, wearing the
crown of Upper Egypt, standing in front of a kind of pillar. The
remains of a small canal suggest that it was drainage for an altar
that stood in the middle of the courtyard.
A door in the
west side of the ambulatory communicated with five, long chapels
(actually niches) that also originally housed statues of the king.
Another narrow corridor opens from the southwest corner of the
courtyard and led to an offering hall located in the west part of
the temple. The hall was a narrow, long room oriented north-south
(in contrast to later mortuary temples) with a false door positioned
on the west wall, precisely on the pyramid's long axis. Between the
five cult chapels and the offering hall, a group of five storage
rooms were provided for cult vessels and offerings used during
various ceremonies.
A stairway in
the northeast corner of the temple led up to the roof terrace, while
in the northwest corner of the courtyard, another corridor led to
the paved pyramid enclosure.
Though all of
them had been plundered apparently in antiquity, there were five
boat bits discovered outside of the mortuary temple. Two of these
stood on the north of the temple, while three were to its
south. Another pit may have been planned. All of these were carved
into the rock in the shape of a boat. Two of the pits still retained
their roofing slabs, though all of the pits had been looted,
probably during antiquity.
The Pyramid
Proper
Kafre's
pyramid is surrounded by an inner, huge stone perimeter wall, within
which is an open courtyard barely ten meters wide that bounds the
four sides of he pyramid proper. This courtyard is paved with
limestone slabs of irregular form.
Because
of the two different entrances to this structure, some Egyptologists
believe that the main Pyramid of Khafre was originally meant to be
larger and to stand slightly farther north then its completed
position. However, modern scholars with considerable expertise on
this pyramid, such as Lehner, doubt this assumption. Like the
pyramid of Khufu
and
others in Egypt, Khafre's structure takes advantage of a rock
outcropping to both increase the stability of its core, as well as
to conserve the amount of necessary building materials needed for
its construction.
In fact, the lowest levels of its southwest corner are actually
hacked out of the rock subsoil. The bedrock surface to the northwest
had to be cut down some 10 meters by its ancient builders, while the
southeast corner had to be built up using mammoth blocks of masonry.
However, by far the substance of the pyramid core is made up of
locally quarried limestone blocks of approximately equal height.
Nearby to the north of they pyramid, one may still clearly see the
traces of how these blocks were quarried. The blocks were not laid
with the care that was given to the core of Khufu's pyramid, for the
layers do not always run exactly horizontally, and the joints are at
times very wide. Often, there is no mortar between the blocks. In
fact, because the four corner angles were not quite aligned
correctly to meet the pyramid apex, there is a very slight twist at
the top.
The
base levels of the casing were made of pink granite, while the
higher layers, which become much smaller towards the top (about one
cubit thick) are of fine
Turah
limestone. The outside faces of the casing blocks are often
staggered by a few millimeters rather than flush, which may mean
that they were faced prior to their placement. While the pyramidion
and the apex have been lost, at the top of the pyramid, a small
portion of the original casing remains in place, which helps us see
how the finishing blocks were laid and bound to the pyramid core.
However, because it is clear that the remaining casing is eroding,
recent investigations by Italian experts have shown that the
remaining corner edges of the mantle are not completely straight.
Individual blocks are slightly turned in various directions. An
analysis of this peculiarity suggests that this was the result of
seismic activity. Small earthquakes were not uncommon in ancient
Egypt, as they are likewise known to occur in modern times.
The oldest of
the two entrances into the subterranean depths of Khafre's pyramid
is now located in the ground about thirty meters north of the
pyramid. Carved completely out of the rock subsoil, it is sometimes
called the "lower entrance". This portal communicates with a
corridor that at first descends before running horizontally. In this
horizontal leg of the corridor, a passage gives way on the west wall
to a small chamber cut from the bedrock and provided with a pented
roof, where part of the burial equipment was possibly stored. After
the horizontal section of the entrance corridor, it finally ascends
into a horizontal corridor shared by the "upper entrance".
The
second portal, known as the "upper entrance", is located in the
north wall of the pyramid's face about twelve meters above ground
level. It communicates with a corridor lined in pink granite that
first descends before running horizontally at the base of the
pyramid. At the transitional point between its descending and
horizontal sections, there is a barrier made of pink granite, which
in antiquity, grave robbers managed to dig around. The horizontal
passage continues south after the barrier, eventually arriving at
the burial chamber, which lies on the vertical axis of the pyramid.
Given the location and relatively simple construction of the access
corridor and the burial chamber, it is likely that the architects of
this pyramid sought to avoid the complications that builders of
Khufu's pyramid had encountered with their technically difficult
system of passageways, barriers and chambers.
As with
earlier pyramids, the burial chamber has a rectangular, east-west
oriented ground plan which places it at a right angle to the
passage system. With the exception of its ceiling, it was excavated
completely out of the rock. Located over the pyramid's base, the
burial chamber's gabled ceiling is built from enormous pented,
limestone blocks. Originally, the intention may have been to cover
the burial chamber's walls of this chamber in pink granite. There
are shaft entrances in both the north and south walls of the burial
chamber that, at first, appear similar to those in the Queen's and
King's cambers of the great Pyramid, but are rather
short, horizontal openings that could have been used to reinforce a
wooden structure inside the tomb.
Near the west
wall of the burial chamber, almost directly under the vertical axis
of the pyramid and situated within a niche stands the black granite
sarcophagus of the king that originally was surmounted by a sliding
lid. The lid was found in two pieces close by. Near the sarcophagus,
a small shaft in the floor probably held royal
canopic vessel, which would have been the first instance of this
funerary equipment placed in a pyramid.. No positively identifiable
remains of the king's mummy or his other funerary equipment were
found within the pyramid.
The Cult
Pyramid
A small,
almost completely destroyed cult pyramid (G 2a) sits on the axis of
the south side of the main pyramid of Khafre. Cult, or Satellite
pyramids as they are sometimes called, are thought to have derived
from the south tomb of
Djoser's
complex at
Saqqara, and may have
been for the burial of statues dedicated to the
ka, or
spiritual double, of the king. Originally, it was surrounded by
its own enclosure wall. It has a simple substructure that consists
of a descending corridor that gives way to an underground chamber
with a T-shaped ground plan. Because this chamber contained bits of
wood, carnelian beads, fragments of animal bones and vessel lids,
Maragioglio and Rinaldi concluded that it must have served as a tomb
for one of Khafre's consorts. However, Stadelmann opposed this
view, believing that it was a cult pyramid. His opinion is supported
by the cult pyramid attached to Khufu's complex on its southeast
corner.
More to the
point, Lehner believes that the wood made up a frame of cedar in the
form of a sah netjer, or divine booth, which was used to transport a
statue to be buried in the subsection of this small pyramid.
Other
Structures
In the early
1880s, Petrie also discovered west of Khafre's pyramid beyond the so
called outer perimeter wall, the ruins of a structure that contained
long, mostly east-west oriented rooms. He assumed, as did some later
investigators such as Holscher, that this was a worker's village
that lodged as many as four to five thousand men in 111 large rooms.
However, later work by Lehner and Hawass seem to suggest that that
this facility, rather than a settlement, was instead a storehouse as
well as the workshops for the pyramid complex. Interestingly, the
great number of mollusk shells that were found here also suggest
that the surrounding area was, rather than arid desert as it is
today, a kind of savanna with the corresponding flora and fauna.
Violation
of the Pyramid
Perhaps as
early as the First Intermediate Period, as in the case with other
pyramids, thieves had probably already broken into Khafre's tomb.
Inscriptions by the "overseer of temple construction" indicate that
already by the 19th
Dynasty, considerable damage had already occurred. In fact,
written sources indicate that, on the orders of
Ramesses II,
casing from Khafre's pyramid was used for the construction of a
temple in
Heliopolis. Other sources suggest that a large part of the
pyramid casing was removed between 1356 and 1362 for use in the
Mosque of al-Hassan.
At any rate,
the Arab historian Ibn Abd as-Salaam records that the pyramid was
opened up in the 774 after the hegira (1372 C.E.), during the reign
of the Great Emir Jalburgh el-Khassaki. It is possible that the
tunnels going around the granite barriers in the entry passage could
have been dug at that time.
The Great
Sphinx
Outside
perimeter walls may have extended around the entire Khafre pyramid
complex, including within it the great Sphinx. Close study by
geologist Thmas Aigner of the geological layers of the Sphinx show
that it was closely related to the quarrying and building of the
Khafre complex.
Hence, there
is some indication that it was a part of Khafre's pyramid complex.
However, the latter is by no means certain, so here we have avoided
the issue for the time being, electing rather to discuss the Great
Sphinx separately.
Technical:
Main
Pyramid Original name:
Khafre is Great Date of construction: 4th dynasty Original height: 1473.5 meters Angle of inclination: 53o
10' Lengths of sides of base: 215.25 meters Length of Causeway: 494.6 Meters
Cult Pyramid Angle of inclination: 53o
54' Length of sides of base: 20.9 meters
7130-40) in the East section at Giza. However, his older brothers,
Kauab and
The
valley temple of Khafre's Giza complex, which is one of the best
preserved
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
Here,
in the dim light provided by slits at the tops of the walls, stood
as many as twenty four statues of the king (though one statue base
in the middle that is larger than the others may have been counted
twice) made from diorite, slate and alabaster. This line of statues
continues along the cross of the T shaped hall ending at a doorway
that leads to a corridor from which a stairway ramp winds clockwise
up and over the top of the corridor before terminating on the roof
of the valley temple. 
Hence,
the Polish scholar Bernhardt Grdseloff proposed that purification
rituals were carried out on the roof terrace in a tent especially
constructed for that purpose. Afterwards, he theorized that the body
was embalmed in the temple antechamber. A French Egyptologist,
Etienne Drioton proposed a similar view, only switching the
locations to the antechamber for the purification and the embalming
on the roof terrace. However, Ricke correctly pointed out that these
types of rituals required considerable water that was only available
near the canal, so at best the priests of the valley temple could
have only performed the rituals symbolically. 
The
causeway enters the mortuary temple near the south end of its front
facade.
After
the entrance hall there is a large, open courtyard situated in
approximately the middle of the temple. Paved in slabs of alabaster
and oriented north-south, along its sides runs a covered ambulatory
with a flat limestone roof made of slaps supported by broad pillars
of pink granite. The lower part of this
Because
of the two different entrances to this structure, some Egyptologists
believe that the main Pyramid of Khafre was originally meant to be
larger and to stand slightly farther north then its completed
position. However, modern scholars with considerable expertise on
this pyramid, such as Lehner, doubt this assumption. Like the
pyramid of Khufu
The
base levels of the casing were made of pink granite, while the
higher layers, which become much smaller towards the top (about one
cubit thick) are of fine
The
second portal, known as the "upper entrance", is located in the
north wall of the pyramid's face about twelve meters above ground
level. It communicates with a corridor lined in pink granite that
first descends before running horizontally at the base of the
pyramid. At the transitional point between its descending and
horizontal sections, there is a barrier made of pink granite, which
in antiquity, grave robbers managed to dig around. The horizontal
passage continues south after the barrier, eventually arriving at
the burial chamber, which lies on the vertical axis of the pyramid.
Given the location and relatively simple construction of the access
corridor and the burial chamber, it is likely that the architects of
this pyramid sought to avoid the complications that builders of
Khufu's pyramid had encountered with their technically difficult
system of passageways, barriers and chambers. 
short, horizontal openings that could have been used to reinforce a
wooden structure inside the tomb.