The soft palate is raised by the levator palati muscle (17), which originates on the base of the cranium (18) and terminates in the soft palate, mesial to the pterygoid hamulus (19). The elevating action occurs in concert with the tensing of the horizontal portion of the soft palate by the tensor palati muscle (20). The tensor palati arises as a fleshy column from the scaphoid fossa (21), and descends between the lateral (22) and medial (23) pterygoid plates, where it hooks around the hamulus (24) as a thin, tendinous strap. It then extends horizontally, flattening into a broad, tendinous aponeurosis — the palatine aponeurosis (25).