Learn about this topic in these articles:
...15th and 13th centuries bc, show some characteristically Syrian features. Wooden-pillared porticoes at the entry to reception suites mark the development of a standard palace unit, known as a bit hilani, generally adopted some centuries later by the Syro-Hittites (see art and architecture, Anatolian: Hittite period). Basalt orthostats, as yet unsculptured, anticipated those of the...
...columned portico, a long reception room, with an adjoining staircase to the roof, and a varying number of retiring rooms (see art and architecture, Syro-Palestinian). A striking example of these bit hilani is the Kaparu Palace at Tall Ḥalaf, near the source of the Khābūr River. The almost barbaric array of sculpture shows the city to have been predominantly Aramaean.