About 300 feet from the outer edge of the lower terrace, the upper terrace seems to have commenced.  It was raised probably about ten feet above the lower one.  The mode of access has not been discovered, but is presumed to have been by a flight of steps, not directly opposite the propylaeum, but somewhat to the right, whereby entrance was given to the great court, into which opened the main gateways of the palace itself.  The court was probably 250 feet long by 160 or 170 feet wide.  The visitor, on mounting the steps, perhaps passed through another propylaeum (b in the plan); after which, if his business was with the monarch, he crossed the full length of the court, leaving a magnificent triple entrance, which is thought to have led to the king’s hareem, on his left and making his way to the public gate of the palace, which fronted him when he mounted the steps.  The hareem portal, which he passed, resembled in the main the great propylaeum of the lower platform; but, being triple, it was still more magnificent exhibiting two other entrances on either side of the main one, guarded each by a single pair of winged bulls of the smaller size.  Along the hareem wall, from the gateway to the angle of the court, was a row of sculptured bas-reliefs, ten feet in height, representing the monarch with his attendant guards and officers. [PLATE XLIII., Fig. 3.] The facade occupying the end of the court was of inferior grandeur. [PLATE XLV., Fig.1. ] Sculptures similar to those along the hareem wall adorned it; but its centre showed only a single gateway, guarded by one pair of the larger bulls, fronting the spectator, and standing each in a sort of recess, the character of which will be best understood by the ground-plan in the illustration.  Just inside the bulls was the great door of the palace, a single door made of wood-apparently of mulberry,—­opening inwards, and fastened on the inside by a bolt at bottom, and also by an enormous lock.  This door gave entrance into a passage, 70 feet long and about 10 feet wide, paved with large slabs of stone, and adorned on either side with inscriptions, and with a double row of sculptures, representing the arrival of tribute and gifts for the monarch.  All the figures here faced one way, towards the inner palace court into which the passage led.  M. Botta believes that the passage was uncovered; while Mx.  Fergusson imagines that it was vaulted throughout.  It must in any case have been lighted from above; for it would have been impossible to read the inscriptions, or even to see the sculptures, merely by the light admitted at the two ends.

[Illustration:  PLATE 45]