The royal palace of Mari was the royal residence of the rulers of the ancient kingdom of Mari

Mari, Syria

Mari was an ancient Sumerian and Amorite city, located 11 kilometers north-west of the modern town of Abu Kamal on the western bank of Euphrates river, some 120 km southeast of Deir ez-Zor, Syria...

 in eastern Syria

Syria

Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....

. The royal palace was excavated with the rest of the city in the 1930s and is considered one of the most important finds made at Mari.

Overview

The large palace, which spanned an area of almost 2.5 hectares (6.2 acre) and dates back to the 18th-century BC, has a rather elaborate structure. The rooms were clustered around a number of courtyards, with some places indicating a second floor with walls up to 4 metres (13.1 ft) thick and 8 metres (26.2 ft) high. More than 260 chambers, courtyards, and corridors have been excavated so far. The exact layout of the palace is still being clarified by French excavation teams.

The palace was formally divided into royal space, public space (including the throne room and reception halls), sacred space with two chapels, private dwellings for the women of the court, and service quarters (including kitchens, offices, and storage facilities).

Archaeological finds

Tablets

More than 20,000 tablets were found in the palace. Most of these tablets date back to the reign of Yasmah-Adad

Yasmah-Adad

Yasmah-Adad was the son of the Amorite king Shamshi-Adad I, put on throne of Mari by his father after a successful military attack. After Shamshi-Adad's death he managed to rule for only a short time before being ousted from power by Zimrilim. His brother, Ishme-Dagan, ruled at the same time in the...

, Shamshi-Adad I

Shamshi-Adad I

Shamshi-Adad I Shamshi-Adad I Shamshi-Adad I (fl. late 18th century BC (short chronology) was an Assyrian king. He rose to prominence when he carved out an empire encompassing much of Mesopotamia, Syria and Asia Minor...

' son, and Zimrilim

Zimrilim

Zimrilim was king of Mari from about 1775 to 1761 BCE.He was the son or grandson of Iakhdunlim, but was forced to flee to Yamkhad when his father was assassinated by his own servants during a coup. The city was occupied by Shamshi-Adad I, the king of Assur, who put his own son Yasmah-Adad on the...

 (c. 1785-1760 BC). They were left in situ when the city was plundered by the Babylon

Babylon

Babylon was an Akkadian city-state of ancient Mesopotamia, the remains of which are found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad...

ian king Hammurabi

Hammurabi

Hammurabi Hammurabi Hammurabi (Akkadian from Amorite ʻAmmurāpi, "the kinsman is a healer", from ʻAmmu, "paternal kinsman", and Rāpi, "healer"; (died c...

 in 1759 BC. The letters shed a fascinating light on the day to day management of the palace, the administration of the kingdom, and the politics of the ancient Near East

Ancient Near East

The ancient Near East was the home of early civilizations within a region roughly corresponding to the modern Middle East: Mesopotamia , ancient Egypt, ancient Iran The ancient Near East was the home of early civilizations within a region roughly corresponding to the modern Middle East: Mesopotamia...

. The tablets, according to André Parrot

André Parrot

André Parrot was a French archaeologist specializing in the ancient Near East. He led excavations in Lebanon, Iraq and Syria.-Biography:...

, "brought about a complete revision of the historical dating of the ancient Near East and provided more than 500 new place names, enough to redraw or even draw up the geographical map of the ancient world". One of the letters is from the king of Yamhad

Yamhad

Yamhad was an ancient Amorite kingdom centered at Halab . A substantial Hurrian population also settled in the kingdom, and the Hurrian culture influenced the area. The kingdom was powerful during the Middle Bronze Age, ca. 1800-1600 BC. Its biggest rival was Qatna further south...

 forwarding a request from the king of Ugarit

Ugarit

Ugarit was an ancient port city in the eastern Mediterranean at the Ras Shamra headland near Latakia, Syria. It is located near Minet el-Beida in northern Syria. It is some seven miles north of Laodicea ad Mare and approximately fifty miles east of Cyprus...

, who had heard of the wonders of the royal palace at Mari and wished to visit it himself.

Frescoes

The discovery of brilliantly colored frescoes was a great surprise, given the normally unfavorable conditions of the preservation of painted decorations. One fresco shows a rather complex composition depicting in the center the "investiture of Zimrilim

Zimrilim

Zimrilim was king of Mari from about 1775 to 1761 BCE.He was the son or grandson of Iakhdunlim, but was forced to flee to Yamkhad when his father was assassinated by his own servants during a coup. The city was occupied by Shamshi-Adad I, the king of Assur, who put his own son Yasmah-Adad on the...

" by a warrior-goddess, most probably Ishtar

Ishtar

Ishtar is the Assyrian and Babylonian goddess of fertility, love, war, and sex. She is the counterpart to the Sumerian Inanna and to the cognate north-west Semitic goddess Astarte.-Characteristics:...

.