The western arm of corridor 17 opens into court K. The north and west sides of this court are completely ruined and represented only by grass-grown heaps of stones. On the south side there is a true lîwân group (49, 50, 51) with an antechamber, the lîwân (49) opening into the antechamber through a wide archway, the side chambers (50 and 51) by means of doors. To the west of these chambers there is an open space with no buildings standing upon it; even the outer wall is completely ruined. It is here that the south gate is placed in the French plan. Some 19 to 20 metres west of No. 50, two chambers (52 and 53) with an antechamber are partially preserved. A mound of stones and grass runs northward, continuing the west wall of Nos. 51 and 53. East of this mound, at any rate at its northern end, there were ruin heaps indicating chambers, but I was not able to discern their exact form or extent, nor yet their relation to the hall 54. This hall is a chamber 16·15 metres square, with walls 3·90 metres thick which carried a dome set upon squinch arches (Plate 69, Fig. 1). No part of this dome is standing, but it is safe to conjecture that it was built of brick.[48] The method of constructing the squinches can be seen best at the south-west angle (Plate 69, Fig. 2). An archway, 5·70 metres wide, breaks the centre of each wall. The round arches were built of brick, but on the south side only is any considerable portion of the brickwork preserved (Plate 70, Figs. 1 and 2). The bricks are laid horizontally, not vertically, i.e. with the narrow face outward. Above each archway there is a small round-headed window. On the exterior the face of the walls has perished to a considerable extent. Between the top of the archways and the bottom of the windows the wall would seem to have been recessed back slightly (Plate 71), and at this level the corners of the building appear to have been sliced off, thus reducing the mass of masonry behind the squinches. This effect may, however, be produced merely by the decay of the masonry, for the lower part of the walls also has invariably broken away at the angles. At the north-east and north-west corners I noticed some brickwork embedded in the stone masonry. No. 54 stands 9 metres from the western outer wall, of which at this point nothing but foundations remain. At the north-west angle there are ruins of four chambers (55, 56, 57, 58) placed two deep, and to the south four chambers (59, 60, 61, 62) lie parallel to one another along the wall. No. 62 breaks off abruptly with a high peak of masonry (Plate 72), possibly part of an upper story. I saw no trace of any building further to the west. CHAPTER IV GENESIS OF THE EARLY MOHAMMADAN PALACE