The facial canal is a Z-shaped canal running through the temporal bone from the internal acoustic meatus to the stylomastoid foramen

Stylomastoid foramen

Between the styloid and mastoid processes of the temporal bone is the stylomastoid foramenIt is the termination of the facial canal, and transmits the facial nerve and stylomastoid artery.- Clinical Relevance :...

. In humans it is approximately 3 centimeters long, which makes it the longest human osseous canal of a nerve. It is located within the middle ear region, according to its shape it is divided into three main segments: the labyrinthine, the tympanic, and the mastoidal segment.

See also

• Facial nerve
  Facial nerve
  The facial nerve is the seventh of twelve paired cranial nerves. It emerges from the brainstem between the pons and the medulla, and controls the muscles of facial expression, and functions in the conveyance of taste sensations from the anterior two-thirds of the tongue and oral cavity...
  
  
• Prominence of the facial canal
  Prominence of the facial canal
  The prominence of the facial canal indicates the position of the bony canal in which the facial nerve is contained; this canal traverses the labyrinthic wall of the tympanic cavity above the fenestra vestibuli, and behind that opening curves nearly vertically downward along the mastoid wall....
  
  
• Hiatus of the facial canal
  Hiatus of the facial canal
  A shallow groove, sometimes double, leading lateralward and backward to an oblique opening, the hiatus for greater petrosal nerve , for the passage of the greater superficial petrosal nerve and the petrosal branch of the middle meningeal artery....