The southern palace was Nebuchadnezzar II's vast administrative and ceremonial complex, the largest building in 6th-century Babylon. Five interlinked courtyards, throne rooms and audience halls were arranged behind blue-glazed facades, and an inscription identified the central throne room — a large rectangular hall with a niched dais — as the place where the king received emissaries from across the known world.
Saddam Hussein's 1980s reconstruction has rebuilt much of the palace on its original foundations, so what you walk through is a sometimes uneasy mix of ancient mudbrick and modern replica. Look for the original lower courses (smaller, darker, more weathered) underneath the modern brickwork. The throne room is one of the most evocative spaces on the site.