the size and arrangement of the rooms, on which we do not need to dwell. The central court is paved with rough stones[492] at a depth of three feet below the present surface, a depth which probably accords with the foundations of the walls and with the ancient level. The sloping ground to the north was prepared for this building by a stone revetment mounting in steps; and special precautions were taken against slipping in the bonding of the masonry on that side. Not only are the stones of the upper courses shaped to fit into one another in a scheme of ‘joggles,’ resembling ‘tongues and grooves,’ to borrow a term better known, but the lower course is provided with a ridge rising along its front edges, which further prevented any general movement of the whole in that direction. As for the upper part of this structure, it is for the excavators to decide whether it was carried up in masonry, of which there remains no visible trace, or whether it was of wood and brick, as in the Hittite palaces across the Taurus. The level nature of the preserved masonry, and certain features pointed out by Perrot,[493] suggest that the latter method was employed here also, as is indeed supported by observations made by Dr. Curtius in one of the upper buildings recently discovered in the acropolis.[494] To judge by the foundations disclosed at a greater depth by Dr. Winckler’s expedition, the palace which we have just described seems to mark the site of an earlier and somewhat similar building, in the ruins of which were found numerous precious tablets inscribed in the cuneiform script. These are long-lost pages in the history of monarchs, of empires and principalities in Western Asia, and as such their relevance lies with a later chapter of our work. That which is important for the moment is the fundamental date they give, overlapping in part the eighteenth and nineteenth dynasties of Egypt, and coming to an end shortly after the reign of Rameses II. in the thirteenth century B.C. [Illustration: PLATE LXII BOGHAZ-KEUI: BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE LOWER PALACE With the modern village beyond.]