Khefren_Pyramid Complex at Giza

Pyramid Complex at Giza

Khefren's pyramid at Giza, with the Great Sphinx in the foreground.

Location   
After Kheops, Khefren was the second king to choose Giza as the location for his funerary monument. Kheops' eldest surviving son and immediate successor, Djedefre, had not followed in his father's footsteps and moved away from Giza to the more mountainous area of Abu Rawash, some 8 km to the North, thereby establishing the Northernmost part of the Memphite necropolis.
The reasons for Djedefre's move north and Khefren's return are not known. Theories about this being the result of some dynastic feuds are, no matter how romantic they may sound, mere speculation. Practical or religious considerations may as easily have been the reason behind both the move away from Giza as the move back.
Whatever the motivation of both Djedefre and his brother Khefren, the latter built his pyramid at some distance to the Northwest of his father's at Giza. The diagonal of Khefren's pyramid is an almost perfect continuation of the diagonal of Kheops', a tribute to the craftsmanship of the architects and builders of the monument.Although Khefren's pyramid appears to be taller than Kheops', it is, actually, some 3 metres smaller. Its taller appearance is the result of the fact that it was built on a higher plateau than the pyramid of Kheops.

Structure
The pyramid complex of Khefren shows a further evolution in the structure of this type of monument. A Valley Temple in the East, located right next to an artificial lake, was connected to the actual mortuary temple by a covered causeway.
Judging by its size, the mortuary temple appears to have gained in prominence. The structures East of the pyramids of Snofru at Dashur, were nothing more but chapels. With Kheops, these chapels were extended into a small temple, but it was with Khefren's mortuary temple that most of the elements that would later become traditional were incorporated into the edifice.
A small Satellite Pyramid is located to the South of the king's main pyramid. No Queens' Pyramids appear to have been built.

Hover over or tap the map of Khefren's Pyramid Complex at Giza and 
 architectural elements that made up this complex.
Source: Lehner, Complete Pyramids, p. 124.

The Sphinx and its temple, located North of the causeway and Valley Temple respectively, may also have played an important part in the funerary cult of the deceased king.

Khefren's Pyramid at Giza

Pyramid
With a height of 143.5m and only 3m smaller than Kheops', the pyramid of Khefren is the second tallest to have been built in Egypt. Khefren built his pyramid on a higher part of the Giza plateau, which makes his pyramid look higher, but whether this was a coincidence or the result of Khefren's desire to outdo his father, is not known.
The bedrock on which the pyramid was built had a natural slope of 3 to 6°. In order to compensate for that, the ancient builders cut away some 10 m of rock where the northwest corner of the pyramid would be, and they added some large blocks for the southeast corner.
Aside from the bottom course, which was done in granite, the entire pyramid was encased in limestone from the quarries of Turah. Most of the outer casing has been stripped over the centuries by stone robbers, leaving only the top part of the original stone. This has given the pyramid its distinctive modern-day look.

Built on a higher part of the Giza plateau, Khefern’s pyramid appears to be the highest pyramid at Giza, while it is actually 3 metres smaller than Kheops'.

The casing blocks that were used for the top courses of the pyramid are a lot smaller than those remaining at the bottom. These blocks are often staggered rather than flush, suggesting that they were cut before they were laid, either because it was more practical to do so, or as a result of the fact that the lower courses of outer casing were stolen.
This does, however, suggest that even at the time of Khefren, the building of pyramids was still somewhat experimental.
The pyramid's internal structure is less complex than those of the pyramids of Kheops and Snofru.There are two entrances, both slightly off-centre and, following tradition, in the north. The first entrance is at ground level, the second one some 11.54m above the ground. Both entrances are followed by a descending passage that ends in a horizontal section.
A subsidiary room opens off the horizontal section to the west of the lower passage. It was cut into the bedrock, and has a pented roof. The purpose of this room is not clear. It may simply have served as a storage room for offerings, or it could have been a serdab room, where the deceased king could come and collect his daily offerings.
At the end of the horizontal section of the lower passage, a second passage leads back up, finally meeting with the horizontal section of the upper descending passage. From there, a horizontal corridor leads to the burial chamber, located at ground level and not exactly at the centre of the pyramid.
The burial chamber opens to the west of the corridor. It measures 14.15 by 5 m and is 6.83 m high. Its roof is made of limestone and is pented.
A pit cut into the floor may probably have been used for the canopic chest.
The sarcophagus, made of black, hard granite, was set at the far end of the burial chamber. It was found to contain the bones of a bull, most likely part of an offering made at a later date, when the king's body had already been robbed and lost.
Satellite Pyramid
Only the outlines of the foundations of the small satellite pyramid, built to the South of the main pyramid, have been found, the rest probably being dragged off by stone robbers.
The satellite pyramid has two descending passages one of which extends beyond the pyramid and leads to a small niche. In this niche, a wooden box was found containing the remains of a shrine that was ritually chopped up into different regular sized pieces. This shrine may have held a statue of the king's Ka, confirming the similarity with the South Tomb in the complex of Netjerikhet at Saqqara, which is believed to have been intended as a tomb for the king's Ka.

Khefren's Mortuary and Valley Temples

Mortuary Temple
Khefren's mortuary temple marks the final transition of the funerary chapels that stood east of the pyramids of Snofru at Dashur, to an actual temple. It is also the first mortuary temple to have incorporated the five features that would become standard for the mortuary temples to come:

1. an entrance hall
2. a broad columned court
3. five niches for statues of the king
4. five storage chambers
5. an inner sanctuary that housed either a pair of stelae, a false door or both.

The temple consists of a fore part and a back part. The fore part was made of huge blocks of limestone, which were encased in a finer quality of limestone. This technique was yet another innovation that was introduced during the reign of Khefren.

The remains of Khefren's mortuary temple, seen from his pyramid. The distinction between the heavy fore section and the lighter back section is very clear.
Source: Lehner, Complete Pyramids, p. 124.

A 494.6m long causeway that connects it to the Valley Temple, enters the Mortuary Temple near the South end of the East face.The entrance hall consisted of a transversed section near the actual entrance, and a rectangular hall behind it. Both sections had columns to support the roof. A long, narrow chamber branches off at each end of the second hall, perhaps, once housing a statue of the king.The second hall opens into a large open court, surrounded by pillars  In front of the pillars there once stood 12 large statues of the king some of which may have been usurped by Ramesses II many centuries later.
Beyond the court there are the now badly damaged five niches for more statues of the king. Behind each niche, there is a storage chamber and at the very back of the temple, against the pyramid itself, there was the actual inner sanctuary that probably contained a false door through which the deceased king could come to collect his daily offerings.
North of the five niches, a corridor leads from the columned court to the pyramid enclosement.
Outside the Mortuary Temple, 5 boat pits and the beginning of a 6th one have been found cut into the bedrock. Two of them still retain their original roofing slabs. Shaped like boats, they once housed the boats that were used to bring the king's mortal remains to his final resting place.

Valley Temple
Like the fore section of the Mortuary Temple, the Valley Temple was built of huge blocks of stone, that were lined with finer blocks.The temple had two entrances, probably symbolising the duality of Upper and Lower Egypt, each connecting to a vestibule, from which a door led to a large hall, shaped like an inverted T. The roof of the hall was supported by 16 single-block granite pillars  The walls were covered in red granite and the floor pavements were made of Egyptian alabaster. There are 23 shallow pits in the floor, each once holding a statue of the king. One of the pits is wider than the others and may have held a double-statue, setting the total statues of the king in the Valley Temple to 24. This number has led some Egyptologists to suggest that every hour of the day, a ritual was performed in front of one of the statues.In the southwest of the transverse part of this hall, there are three additional niches. In the northwest, a corridor leads to the causeway that connects the Valley Temple to the Mortuary Temple.

Khefren's Valley Temple, with his pyramid in the back, to the right.
Source: Lehner, Complete Pyramids, p. 125.

The Sphinx and its Temple

Location and date
The Great Sphinx at Giza, one of the many monuments that we have come to consider an icon of the Ancient Egyptian civilisation, lies northwest of the Valley Temple of the Pyramid Complex of Khefren.

The Great Sphinx of Giza, with Khefren's pyramid in the background, to the left.

Right in front of the Sphinx, and directly north of the Valley Temple, an open structure was erected. As this structure appears to be very closely related to the Sphinx, archaeologists consider it to be the Sphinx Temple, but the precise function of this unique structure remains unclear to this date.

Source: Lehner, Complete Pyramids, p. 129.

A close geological study of the sphinx and the nearby temples has revealed that the large blocks which were used to build the Valley Temple of Khefren's complex were most likely quarried from the layers that run through the upper part of the Sphinx's body.
The core blocks that were used to build the Sphinx Temple, on the other hand, came from just below the chest height of the Sphinx's body.
This means that the Sphinx was sculpted at almost the same time as when the Valley Temple and temple in front of the Sphinx were built. As the Valley Temple was built as part of Khefren's Pyramid Complex, it thus stands that the Sphinx was sculpted out of the rock during Khefren's reign as well.

Two views of the sphinx: recent and after extensive restoration (left), and captured in an early 20^th century picture (right).
Source for the picture to the right: Free Historical Stock Photos.

Regardless of the reasons why the Sfinx and it temple were built, later generations would consider it to be a statue of the god Harmakhis, Horus at the Horizon, or Horus as a solar god, as is shown  by the Dream Stela, erected in front of the Sfinx by Thutmosis IV of the 18th Dynasty. Although it is possible that the Sfinx was associated with Harmakhis by later generations, it is probable that this was already the case at the time this enigmatic and emblematic statue was created.