At its end are the openings for three different canals, one of which is the facial canal.

Ferrein's foramen: Hiatus of facial canal that makes passage for the greater petrosal nerve.

The facial nerve forms the geniculate ganglion prior to entering the facial canal.

The descent of the foramen is necessarily accompanied by a corresponding lengthening of the facial canal.

The facial nerve travels through the facial canal, eventually exiting the skull at the stylomastoid foramen.

Upon reaching the facial canal, it joins with the motor root of the facial nerve at the geniculate ganglion.

It is the termination of the facial canal, and transmits the facial nerve and stylomastoid artery.

The remaining preganglionic fibers continue as the mixed facial nerve proper as it extends through the facial canal.

For example, in the facial canal, the genicular ganglion is situated on the geniculum of the facial nerve, the point where the nerve changes its direction.

The Labyrinthic or Medial Wall is vertical in direction, and presents for examination the oval window and round window, the promontory, and the prominence of the facial canal.

(2) A superficial petrosal branch enters the hiatus of the facial canal, supplies the facial nerve, and anastomoses with the stylomastoid branch of the posterior auricular artery.

The greater (superficial) petrosal nerve is a branch of the facial nerve that arises from the geniculate ganglion, a part of the facial nerve inside the facial canal.

Hiatus for greater petrosal nerve or hiatus of the facial canal (hiatus canalis nervi petrosi majoris or hiatus canalis facialis)

The geniculate ganglion (from Latin genu, for "knee") is an L-shaped collection of fibers and sensory neurons of the facial nerve located in the facial canal of the head.

The chorda tympani is a nerve that branches from the facial nerve (cranial nerve VII) inside the facial canal, just before the facial nerve exits the skull via the stylomastoid foramen.

The facial canal (also known as Fallopian Canal -first described by Gabriele Falloppio-) is a Z-shaped canal running through the temporal bone from the internal acoustic meatus to the stylomastoid foramen.

This is the first branch of the facial nerve after it exits the facial canal; the second branch is the chorda tympani which carries special sense (taste) and parasympathetic fibres of cranial nerve VII.

The cavity in the pyramidal eminence is prolonged downward and backward in front of the facial canal, and communicates with it by a minute aperture which transmits a twig from the facial nerve to the Stapedius muscle.

On the medial wall of the entrance to the antrum is a rounded eminence, situated above and behind the prominence of the facial canal; it corresponds with the position of the ampullated ends of the superior and lateral semicircular canals.

A shallow groove, sometimes double, leading lateralward and backward to an oblique opening, the hiatus for greater petrosal nerve (or hiatus of the facial canal), for the passage of the greater superficial petrosal nerve and the petrosal branch of the middle meningeal artery.