A door in the south wall of No. 117 leads into an open court, 16·95 metres from east to west by 12·60 metres from north to south. It does not lie in the centre of the three-storied block, but extends considerably to the east of the central axis. The stair from the first floor reaches the second floor at the north-west angle of this court. The door into 119 opens awkwardly over the stair. On the east, south, and west sides of the court stand groups of three chambers, the central chamber opening into the court by a wide archway springing from engaged columns, the side chambers by doors covered by ovoid arches set back from the jambs (Plate 23, Fig. 2); and here we have an architectural group which dominates all the courts upon the ground floor of the palace that are yet to be described. The central chamber with its wide archway is the lîwân or reception-room,[25] the side chambers are, in one form or another, its invariable or almost invariable complement. I shall henceforward speak of the whole as a lîwân group. As Dr. Reuther has pointed out, the occupants of an oriental room seat themselves upon cushions or dîwâns against the wall, the dîwân, cushion or carpet, which is placed against the back wall, being the place of honour. In order not to break up the company, the side doors of every room are situated as far as possible from the back wall, and it will be noticed that this rule holds good in every living-room of the palace. At Ukhaiḍir (though this is not always the case) in every lîwân group the rooms communicate with each other. It is common in oriental houses to build lîwâns facing different points of the compass so as to secure a comfortable shade at different hours of the day, and warmth or coolness at different seasons of the year. The lîwân group, if such it were, over the gate-tower would have served the purpose of a winter reception-room, for it faced south; the group facing north would be used in summer.