Projecting posterolaterally from the inferior margin of the medial plate of the pterygoid process is an elongate hook-shaped structure (the pterygoid hamulus). This hamulus is immediately behind the alveolar arch and inferior to the posterior margin of the hard palate. It is: a “pulley” for one of the muscles (tensor veli palatini) of the soft palate, and the attachment site for the upper end of the pterygomandibular raphe, which is attached below to the mandible and joins together the superior constrictor of the pharynx and the buccinator muscle of the cheek.