The temples are located on either side of the forehead, on the same plane as the cheek and ear, and are directly to the side of the ridge formed by the orbits of the eyes. The pteron or pterion is an anatomical region that roughly corresponds to the temple.
The pterion is the thinnest part of the skull and is the junction of four separate skull bones. The skull is made up of numerous plates that are loosely joined in childhood to allow it to grow. Blows to the temple region can cause dangerous bleeding, due to the major artery running underneath. Although the pterion roughly corresponds to the temple, the main bones beneath the temple are the temporal bone and the sphenoid bone.
