The palace stands partly inside and partly outside of the city wall on a vast elevated platform of brick masonry containing about 25 acres.  Inclined roadways and stairways rise from the inside of the city wall.  The king could thus drive up in his chariot from the streets of the city below to the palace pavement above. The rooms and halls are clustered about a number of courts open to the sky. The main entrance (with stairs before it leading down to, the city) is adorned with massive towers and arched doorways (§ 222) built of richly colored glazed brick (Plate II, p.164) and embellished with huge human-headed bulls carved of alabaster. The temple tower behind the great court, inherited from Babylonia, was the ancestor of the Christian Church spire (Fig. 272). The streets and houses of the city filled the space below the palace within the city walls, which could accommodate some eighty thousand people (§ 213).