View of lateral wall of nasal cavity and sphenoid sinus. The superior and middle turbinates have been removed and only a thin lamella or plate of bone cover the nasal surfaces of ethmoid air cells in the ethmoid labyrinth. In the area of the middle meatus and location of the semilunar hiatus are the openings of the frontal and maxillary sinuses. The inferior turbinate is intact and near the anterior edge of its meatus is the opening of the nasolacrimal duct. Posterior to the inferior turbinate is the opening of the Eustachian tube. Just posterior to the attachment of the middle turbinate is the sphenopalatine foramen, an opening that communicates branches of the maxillary artery and nerve from the pterygopalatine fossa into the nasal cavity. The nasal cavity is bounded inferiorly by the hard palate. Its posterior one-third is contributed by the horizontal plate of the palatine bone. At the lateral edge of this portion of the palatine bone the vertical plate projects superiorly and forms part of the posterolateral wall of the nasal cavity. It articulates posteriorly with the medial plate of the pterygoid process. The floor and anterior and lateral walls of the sphenoid sinus have been removed to expose the cavernous sinus and the cavernous segment of the internal carotid artery. In this sagittal view, one can see the pituitary gland and stalk in the sella turcica. Above the nasal cavity along the floor of the anterior cranial fossa can be observed the olfactory tract and the anterior cerebral artery and its medial orbitofrontal branch coursing along the gyrus rectus of the frontal lobe in the interhemispheric fissure. (Image courtesy of AL Rhoton, Jr.)