Reconstructed "dummy" buildings

Immediately to the north of the entrance colonnade, on the eastern side of a large open courtyard, is a series of reconstructed buildings thought to have been connected with the King’s heb-sed, or jubilee festival. A rectangular building known as Temple ‘T’ is suggested to have been a model of the King’s palace and contains an entrance colonnade, antechamber and three inner courts leading to a square chamber decorated with a frieze of ‘djed’ symbols. This structure leads into the southern end of the ‘Jubilee Court’, which is lined with dummy buildings representing Upper Egypt (on the eastern side) and Lower Egypt (on the western side). These buildings are purely symbolic structures. There were originally 12 chapels on the east with curved vaulted roofs representing the shape of Lower Egyptian shrines each having a statue niche which would have contained statues of the King. The 13 western chapels are modelled on the shrines of Upper Egypt with three fluted half-columns and simulated doorleaves at the entrances, topped by an arched vaulted roof. The two chapels at the south had a staircase leading to a statue niche, while the other western buildings had more simple façades and may have been robing rooms or other buildings connected with the sed festival. A model fence imitating wooden palings separated the shrines. All of the structures represent, in stone, the earlier building materials of wood and reed mats and it is thought that the columns would have been painted red to simulate wood. At the southern end of the Jubilee Court there is a large elevated dais which would have held the thrones of Upper and Lower Egypt where the King may have been symbolically crowned during the ceremonies.