B05.012 Valley Temple of Khafre

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Creator

Denis Baly

Image ID

B05.012

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Article

Description

Hypostyle hall in the Valley Temple of Khafre, situated next to the colossal Sphinx (see B05.011). The hall "comprised a long antechapel of two aisles plus a triple-aisled main chapel. The structural details of this interior formed the purest of all megalithic architecture. In the Great Hall, square pillars 15 feet high supported lintels of red granite. Colossal statues of Khafre stood between each pair of pillars, illuminated by the light that filtered through the slits incorporated in the thick roof" (60). (Source: Trachtenberg and Hyman, Architecture, from prehistory to post-modernism: the western tradition, 1986.)