Royal Palace of Ugarit
The Royal Palace of Ugarit is a Bronze Age ruins in the former port city of Ugarit on the Mediterranean coast of Syria. The royal residence of the rulers of the ancient Kingdom of Ugarit, it was excavated with the rest of the city from the 1930s by French archaeologist Claude F. A. Schaeffer, and is considered one of the most important finds made there.
Overview
Layout
The palace is located in the north-west corner of the former city, and originally spanned an area of. Its surrounds were enclosed by a fortified wall that dates back to the 15th-century BC.There were three entrances: the main gate on the northwest, protected by an array of towers with thick walls and dubbed today "the Fortress", and smaller accesses in the northeast and the southwest.
The compound consisted of ninety rooms divided between two floors. The rooms were built around four large and four smaller courtyards. Its western end had a large garden, and three underground burial chambers were constructed in the structure’s north side. The ground floor was used for administrative purposes and included offices, archives, storage and staff dwellings. The second floor housed the family quarters, and was accessed through twelve staircases.
Architecture
The palace was constructed in four major stages between the 15th and 13th-century BC. It was built out of ashlar stone blocks and wooden crossbeams, with walls covered in a thick coat of plain plaster. The fortified wall, which dates back to the 15th-century BC, was built with packed stones at the bottom and had an outward slope of 45 degrees.The layout is typical of palaces of the Eastern Mediterranean and the Ancient Near East. Its irregular outline and asymmetrical layout are evidence of constant additions and alterations. The burial chambers had corbelled vaults which show a connection with Hittite and Mycenaean architecture.