Back to top: Excavations
Introduction
The Royal Palace of Urkesh (AP) was identified with certainty during the 1999 excavations, although excavations had already started in previous seasons. It is located in area AA (here the related unit book) and includes a Royal Storehouse where several significant glyptic material was discovered. The palace was used by King Tupkish and Queen Uqnitum. At a later time, Tar'am-Agade, the daughter of Naram-Sin resided there, possibly married to the king. The palace attests to the importance of Urkesh in the second part of the third millennium B.C. and greatly contributes to our knowledge of Hurrians and their interaction with Mesopotamia.
The walls are covered for protection, and to highlight the architecture 
The protection is fully removable. Here you see the metal scaffolding on the left 
Besides protecting the walls as ruins, the cover gives a good perception of the architecture 
Virtual reality as produced by the computer is an alternative to the architectural reconstruction in the field shown in the previous images. Even though a computer walk-through is no real match for a real walk among the "ruins," it is a very attractive way of "virtually" simulating reality... 
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Back to top: Excavations
The future
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The palace extends north and east (up and right) – at least twice as much as what is exposed today. The two images below show details of the stone paved courtyard and the high section (center of picture). 
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