Built upon a platform composed of three layers of bricks set in bitumen, the walls of the building were still preserved to the height of a few feet. It is to be noted that on none of the sides is there a trace of any doorway or entrance, and it is probable that access was obtained from the outside by ladders of wood, or stairways of unburnt brick, reaching to the upper story. At D and E on the plan are traces of what may have been either steps or buttresses, but these do not belong to the original building and were added at a later time. The absence of any entrance certainly proves that the building was employed as a storehouse.[5] Within the building are two chambers, the one square (A), the other of a more oblong shape (B). They were separated by a transverse passage or corridor (C), which also ran round inside the outer walls, thus giving the interior chamber additional security. The double walls were well calculated to protect the interior from damp or heat, and would render it more difficult for pillagers to effect an entrance. Both in the chambers and the passages a coating of bitumen was spread upon the floor and walls. Here grain, oil, and fermented drink could have been stored in quantity, and the building may also have served as a magazine for arms and tools, and for the more precious kinds of building material. [Illustration: TELLO: Store-House of Ur-Ninâ.] Around the outside of the building, at a distance of about four metres from it, are a series of eight brick bases, two on each side, in a direct line with the walls.[6] On these stood pillars of cedar-wood, of which the charred remains were still visible. They probably supported a great wooden portico or gallery, which ran round the walls of the building and was doubtless used for the temporary storage of goods and agricultural implements. On the north-east side of the building a brick pavement (F) extended for some distance beyond the gallery, and at the southern angle, within the row of pillars and beneath the roof of the portico, was a small double basin (G) carefully lined with bitumen. At a greater distance from the house were two larger basins or tanks (I and K), with platforms built beside them of brick and bitumen (J and L); with one of them was connected a channel or water-course (M). At a later time Eannatum sunk a well not far to the west of Ur-Ninâ's storehouse, and from it a similar water-course ran to a circular basin; a large oval basin and others of rectangular shape were found rather more to the north. These, like Ur-Ninâ's tanks, were probably employed for the washing of vessels and for the cleansing processes which accompanied the preparation and storage of date-wine, the pressing of oil, and the numerous other occupations of a large agricultural community.