The courtyard of the ambulatory was completely filled by the core building, a massive 22 m large and 11 m high construction. This edifice, located at the center of the temple complex, was excavated in 1904 and 1905 by Edouard Naville. He reconstructed it as a square structure topped by a small pyramid, a representation of the primeval mount which possibly resembled the superstructures of the royal tombs at Abydos. This reconstruction, supported by H. E. Winlock, was contested by D. Arnold, who argued that, for structural reasons, the temple could not have supported the weight of a small pyramid. Instead, he proposed that the edifice was flat-roofed. Rear part of the temple Behind the core edifice was the center of the cult for the deified king. The rear part of the temple was cut directly into the cliff and consisted of an open courtyard, a pillared hall with 82 octagonal columns and a chapel for a statue of the king. This part of the temple was dedicated to Amun-Ra. The open courtyard is flanked on the north and south sides by a row of five columns and on the east side by a double row totalling sixteen columns. At the center of the open courtyard lies a deep dromos leading to the royal tomb. Archaeological finds in this part of the temple include a limestone altar, a granite stele and six granite statues of Senusret III. To the west, the courtyard leads to the hypostyle hall with its ten rows of eight columns each, plus two additional columns on both sides of the entrance. The hypostyle hall is separated from the courtyard by a wall and, being also higher, is accessed via a small ramp. On the west end of the hypostyle hall lies the holiest place of the temple, a sanctuary dedicated to Mentuhotep and Amun-Ra leading to a small speos which housed a larger-than-life statue of the king. The sanctuary itself housed a statue of Amun-Re and was surrounded on three sides by walls and on one side by the cliff. The inner and outer faces of these walls were all decorated with painted inscriptions and representations of the kings and gods in high relief. Surviving relief fragments show the deified king surrounded by the chief deities of Upper and Lower Egypt, Nekhbet, Seth, Horus and Wadjet, and on a par with them. The gods present the