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The palace core. A spacious 40- by 40-foot throne room (shown from the southwest in the photo at left) lay at the heart of the Canaanite palace. The neat layer of pebbles that forms the floor today was originally covered with wood, which burned in the devastating fire that destroyed the city. Slabs of basalt lined the lower portion of the walls; these stones, called orthostats, are visible in the center of the northern wall. Paired side rooms lay to the north, south and west of the throne room.