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THE VALLEY TEMPLE
Monoliths Carved from the Body of the Sphinx
The Valley Temple is part of the complex on the Giza Plateau, and is in an excellent state of preservation, as it remained buried under the desert sands until the nineteenth century. The purpose of this edifice is unknown, and has been hotly debated.

Much of the "temple" is faced with red Aswan granite, more than likely done by Khafre, who was attributed with the building of the second pyramid on the Giza Plateau, and due to this facing work, has also rather auspiciously been attributed with being the builder of this "temple".

The reason this edifice rates a mention here is that the limestone blocks that constitute the core are monstrous. Many in excess of 200 ton, these were quarried out from the Sphinx enclosure, freeing it to be carved. They were then transported, an amazing feat in itself, and then assembled to create twelve metre high walls. The evidence that they are from the Sphinx enclosure lies in the fact that these limestone blocks bear the same precipitation-induced weathering that can be found on the body of the Sphinx. Also, they are of contemporary geological strata. Hence it can be concluded that the Valley Temple is contemporary with the Sphinx, but quite possibly older.
Another curiosity with this site is the jointing methods used to join some of the blocks together. Instead of a simple corner joint employed on all brickwork buildings, these blocks are joined with no mortar, and are cut as oblique joints. An example of this can be seen in figure 3. This method is curiously reminiscent of Macchu Picchu, Ollantaytambo, Sacsayhuaman, among others. The question then remains; why use such complex jointing methods? This type of jointing would have been extremely arduous, and time-consuming.
Figure 1: The Valley Temple of Giza. Click for larger image. Copyright Mary Anne Sullivan, site here.
Figure 4: The walls of the Valley Temple of Giza. Click for larger image. Copyright Mary Anne Sullivan, site here.
Figure 2: The Valley Temple of Giza. Click for larger image. Copyright Mary Anne Sullivan, site here.
Figure 3: Example of the oblique jointing in the Valley Temple. Click for a clearer image.