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The first palace in Baghdad, al-Mansur built this palace and its courts for himself when he founded the city. It stood side-by-side with the Mosque of Mansur. In addition to being known as the "Palace of the Golden Gate," this palace was known as the "Palace of the Green Dome" (Le Strange 31). It was named so because of a green dome that covered central building of the 200 square yard palace. Atop of this dome was the figure of a horseman. This figure was attributed magical powers, as its lance purportedly would point in the direction from which enemies of the caliph were to appear (32).The Palace of the Golden Gate suffered great damage in 198/814 when Mamun sieged the city. Le Strange writes that "during the siege the whole of the Round Ciy was, for the space of severl weeks, continuously bombarded" (33). Althoguh the Green Dome stood intact after the siege, it later fell to ruin in 329/941 when it was struck by a lightning bolt and set ablaze. A large part of the palace was destroyed around the end of the ninth century to enlarge the mosque. (Duri 896; Le Strange 33) The remains of the palace eventually would collapse in its entirety in 653/1255 (Duri 896).See Also: Mosque of Mansur, and The "Round City"Sources:Duri, A. A. "Baghdad." Encyclopaedia of Islam. New ed. 1967.Le Strange, G. Baghdad During the Abbasid Caliphate. 2nd ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1924.