A study of the cartouches and the hammered out double ureus on the blocks of this structure allow it to be dated to the 25th Dynasty, Nubian reign of Taharqa, with blocks reused from his predecessor, Shabaka. Psamtik II (Psammetichus II) subsequently added his cartouches to the building.
On the outside northern facade of this building we find several interesting scenes. Here, the king is purified by a double stream made up of the ankh and the was (Life and Power) that falls in a dome around him. His two open hands show the palm of one and the back side of the other. Two falcons cross their wings over the king's chest under his three-row user necklace. As is the Nubian style, the musculature of the kings legs is prominent. Here, the cartouche of Taharqa has been etched out and replaced by that of Psamtik II.
To the left of this scene is another where the king is clad in a pleated loincloth with a triangular front panel. He offers incense to his father Atum. He holds a "cubit of incense" which he sprinkles into a fire.
Within the structure are additional support walls that rise about 1.5 meters that contain a large number of reused stones from the Nubian period, of which several still retain the cartouche and the two uraei, not hammered out, of Shabaka. This whole area, with the exception of the several rooms in the northwest corner of the building, is thought to have been filled with dirt or debris.
Within the structure, in the corner northwest room, on its southern wall is a depiction of the king and behind him are six baboons, They face the east, and are called "the eastern souls who worship Ra" when he rises. There may have originally been two groups of four baboons each facing east. The classic tests, according to A. Piankoff, states:
"To worship the sun and cause it to rise, by the spirits of the east. The sprits of the east are the four neters (gods) who worship the sun. It is they who make the sun to rise and who open the doors of the four gates of the sky's eastern horison"The Egyptians chose the baboon for this symbolism because the animal seems to greet the morning sun, and is said to give a howl at every hour and urinate twelve times during the day and twelve at night during the equinox.
On the interior north wall of this chamber is a scene depicting the solar barque. The surface on which this bas-relief is sculpted has been flattened out, removing the base of a dozen columns of hieroglyphs from which the cartouches have been visibly removed or cut away. The solar barque is proceeding from east to west, in the direction of the sun's daily path. In the middle is Atum in his naos, who is surmounted by the single word "iuf", which means flesh.
The solar barque as depicted in the temple
Taharqa and his mother on the lintel of the door leading to the inner chapel
During excavations conducted between 1949 and 1950, two additional walls of unbaked brick were unearthed that lead off of the north and south ends of the east wall of the main structure. Apparently this was a sort of courtyard that preceded the "pure wells" from which the water for purifications of the daily ritual were drawn. The southern brick wall is interrupted at its easternmost end by the opening of a staircase that descends to the sacred lake, perpendicular to its border wall.