[1] It is deeply seated in the neck, beneath the other branches of the external carotid and under the stylopharyngeus muscle.

[1] The artery most typically bifurcates into embryologically distinct pharyngeal and neuromeningeal trunks.

The neuromeningeal trunk classically consists of jugular and hypoglossal divisions, which enter the jugular and hypoglossal foramina to supply regional meningeal and neural structures, being in equilibrium with branches of the vertebral, occipital, posterior meningeal, middle meningeal, and internal carotid arteries (via its caroticotympanic branch, meningohypophyseal, and inferolateral trunks).

Also present is the inferior tympanic branch, which ascends towards the middle ear cavity; it is involved in internal carotid artery reconstitution via the "aberrant carotid artery" variant.

This article incorporates text in the public domain from page 557 of the 20th edition of Gray's Anatomy (1918) ocular group: central retinal