id. The temple was connected
with the plain by a long and almost straight causeway, which ran for
the greater part of its course* upon an embankment raised above the
neighbouring ground. This temple was in fair condition in the early
years of the eighteenth century,** and so much of it as has escaped
the ravages of the Mameluks, bears witness to the scrupulous care and
refined art employed in its construction.

* This causeway should not be confounded, as is frequently
done, with that which may be seen at some distance to the
east in the plain: the latter led to limestone quarries in
the mountain to the south of the plateau on which the
pyramids stand. These quarries were worked in very ancient
times.

** Benoit de Maillet visited this temple between 1692 and
1708. "It is almost square in form. There are to be found
inside four pillars which doubtless supported a vaulted roof
covering the altar of the idol, and one moved around these
pillars as in an ambulatory. These stones were cased with
granitic marble. I found some pieces still unbroken which
had been attached to the stones with mastic. I believe that
the exterior as well as the interior of the temple was cased
with this marble" (Le Mascrier, Description de l'Egypte,
1735, pp. 223, 224).

[Illustration: 192.jpg DIORITE STATUE OF MENRAURI]

Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph, by Emil Brugsch-Bey, of
a statue preserved in the Museum of Gizeh.

Coming from the plain, we first meet with an immense halting-place
measuring 100 feet by 46 feet, and afterwards enter a large court with
an egress on each side: beyond this we can distinguish the ground-plan
only of five chambers, the central one, which is in continuation with
the hall, terminating at a distance of some 42 feet from the pyramid,
exactly opposite the middle point of the eastern face. The whole mass
of the building covers a rectangular area 184 feet long by a little
over 177 feet broad. Its walls, like those of the temple of the Sphinx,
contained a core of lime-stone 7 feet 10 inches thick, of which the
blocks have been so ingeniously put together as to suggest the idea that
the whole is cut out of the rock. This core was covered with a casing
of granite and alabaster, of which the remains preserve no trace of
hieroglyphs or of wall scenes: the founder had caused his name to be
inscribed on the statues, which receiv