When Nebuchadnezzar began building he dwelt in the old palace, while he strengthened the walls of its open court on the east and raised its level for the solid platform on which his own palace was to rise.[66] For a time the new and the old palace were connected by two ramps of unburnt-brick,[67] which were afterwards filled in below the later pavement of the great court; and we may picture the king ascending the ramps with his architect on his daily inspection of the work. As soon as the new palace on the east was ready he moved into it, and, having demolished the old one, he built up his own walls upon its foundations, and filled in the intermediate spaces with earth and rubble until he raised its pavement to the eastern level. Still later he built out a further extension[68] along its western side. In the account he has left us of the palace-building the king says: "I laid firm its foundation and raised it mountain-high with bitumen and burnt-brick. Mighty cedars I caused to be stretched out at length for its roofing. Door-leaves of cedar overlaid with copper, thresholds and sockets of bronze I placed in its doorways. Silver and gold and precious stones, all that can be imagined of costliness, splendour, wealth, riches, all that was highly esteemed, I heaped up within it, I stored up immense abundance of royal treasure therein."[69] A good general idea of the palace ground-plan, in its final form, may be obtained from Fig. 6. The main entrance was in its eastern front, through a gate-way,[70] flanked on its outer side by towers, and known as the Bûb Bêlti, or "Lady Gate," no doubt from its proximity to the temple of the goddess Ninmakh.[71] The gate-house consists of an entrance hall, with rooms opening at the sides for the use of the palace-guard. The eastern part of the palace is built to the north and south of three great open courts,[72] separated from each other by gateways[73] very like that at the main entrance to the palace. It will be noticed that, unlike the arrangement of a European dwelling, the larger rooms are always placed on the south side of the court facing to the north, for in the sub-tropical climate of Babylonia the heat of the summer sun was not courted, and these chambers would have been in the shade throughout almost the whole of the day.