Before the platform stood an extensive and wonderful holy
place, 6m in measurement, which was built from five squares of white alabaster.
This was cut in profound help with a hover at its inside and four
"hotep" images on the sides (the hieroglyphic sign speaking to
'offerings', "peace" or 'fulfilled'). This lovely sacred place still
stays in situ. On the southern side of the pillar was a house of prayer which
contained the 'Council of the Seasons', its reliefs portraying the reproducing
power of the
sun-god in nature. Lamentably some of these reliefs in Museums in Germany were
obliterated amid the Second World War. At the north-east corner of the walled
in area is a progression of ten alabaster bowls (nine as yet surviving) thought
to be utilized as a part of conciliatory customs, either for water or blood.
Outside the upper sanctuary nook dividers (which contained storage facilities),
a watercraft molded pit fixed with mudbricks can in any case be seen on the
southern side and which is another indication of the components of the pyramid
complex.
Cartouche of Niuserre
One of nine alabaster basins
The causeway descended steeply from the walls of the terrace
and like Userkaf's causeway was offset to the north-east and the valley temple
which formed an entrance pylon to the complex. The scant remains of the valley
temple are in boggy ground and have never been properly investigated, but its
thick enclosure walls led Borchardt to believe that they were the walls of a
settlement.
The purpose of the sun-temples has never really been
satisfactorily explained and suggestions for their significance are numerous.
What they do seem to symbolise is the union of the king with the solar deity,
which had become almost a state god during this period. At least by mid-Dynasty
V they seem to have had a close connection to the pyramids at Abusir, although
we know that the temples had their own donations, lands and maintenance staff.
