C: Great Court. F: Throne Room, _a:_ Recess in back-wall for throne, _b-d:_ Entrances to Throne Room from Court, _e-g_: Entrances from side and back. 1-3: Open courts, surrounded by rooms for the royal service. 4, 5: Open courts in the south-east corner of the Private Palace. (After Koldewey.)] The most interesting apartment within the palace is one that may be identified as Nebuchadnezzar's Throne Room. This is the room immediately to the south of the Great Court.[78] It is the largest chamber of the palace, and since the walls on the longer sides are six metres thick, far broader than those at the ends, it is possible that they supported a barrel-vaulting. It has three entrances from the court,[79] and in the back wall opposite the centre one is a broad niche, doubly recessed into the structure of the wall, where we may assume the royal throne once stood. During any elaborate court ceremony the king would thus have been visible upon his throne, not only to those within the chamber, but also from the central portion of the Great Court. It was in this portion of the palace that some traces of the later Babylonian methods of mural decoration were discovered. For, while the inner walls of the Throne Room were merely washed over with a plaster of white gypsum, the brickwork of the outer façade, which faced the court, was decorated with brightly-coloured enamels. [Illustration: FIG. 10. DESIGN IN ENAMELLED BRICK FROM THE FAÇADE OF THE THRONE ROOM In the drawing light and dark blue are indicated by light and heavy horizontal shading; yellow by a dotted surface.]