than his brother. He abandoned the task of covering the pyramid altogether and finished the mortuary temple with cheaper materials than were normally used for such buildings. Its walls were made of mud-bricks rather than limestone and its floor was of beaten clay. The outer part of the temple was built to comprise a column portico and a pillared court, all columns being made of wood rather than the usual granite. The temple and pyramid were also surrounded by a brick wall. Likely for reasons of economy, the causeway leading to the mortuary temple at the foot of the pyramid was never built, no satellite pyramid was added to the mortuary complex, and the valley temple was left unfinished. Consequently, the priest of the mortuary cult of Neferirkare lived on the temple premises, in dwellings of mud-bricks and rushes, rather than in the pyramid town closer to the Nile valley. Pyramid of Neferefre Construction works on the pyramid of Neferefre had just begun when Neferefre died unexpectedly in his early twenties. At the time of Nyuserre's ascension to the throne, only one step of the core of Neferefre's pyramid had been completed. The substructures, built in a large open pit at the center of the pyramid were possibly unfinished as well. Nyuserre hastily completed the pyramid by transforming it into a stylised primeval mound resembling a mastaba: the walls of the core layer already in place were covered with limestone and the top was filled with clay and stones drawn from the local desert. The accompanying mortuary temple, which then comprised only a small stone chapel possibly built by the ephemeral Shepseskare, was finished by Nyuserre. Extending over the whole length of the pyramid side, the temple was built of mudbrick and comprised the earliest hypostyle hall of Ancient Egypt, its roof supported by wooden columns. The hall housed a large wooden statue of the deceased king. Nyuserre also built storage rooms to the north of the hall and, east of it, the "Sanctuary of the Knife" where animals were ritually slaughtered. A column courtyard completed the temple entrance, adorned with two stone columns and 24 wooden ones. Pyramid complex of Khentkaus II Work on the pyramid and mortuary temple of Nyuserre's mother, Khentkaus II, had begun during her husband's rule but was stopped in the tenth year of his reign, at which point only the pyramid core was still