The king and queen sometimes ascended the tower to witness the panorama of the country around, with its river, the bills and lakes. They also, from its summit, contemplated the spectacle of the illumination of the town at the Thadingyut festival at the end of Vassa ('Buddhist Lent'). It is said that Queen Supayalat witnessed, from there, the entry of the British troops who took Mandalay in November 1885. The Watch Tower also survived the allied bombing during World War II. On the palace platform The road from the Eastern Gate, which passes between the Clock Tower and the Relic Tower, leads to the Mye-Nandaw, and the Golden Spire over the Lion Throne Room, which marks the centre of the city. All the palace buildings stood on the platform. The latter consists of three distinct parts: on the east, the Great Audience Hall and the Lion Throne Room are erected on an earthen basement contained by a brick wall; the whole of the western portion, from the westernmost extremity up to and including the Hman-nan or Glass Palace, is likewise an earthen basement surrounded by a masonry wall; these two basements are connected, from the Hman-nan up to the Lion Throne Room, by a plank flooring of the same level supported by numerous teak posts. The whole of this platform, in its greatest length, measures 306 m (1,004 ft); in its greatest width, 175 m (574 ft). The height of the basement is 2 m (6 ft 9 in), the surrounding or retaining wall rising to a height of 3 m (10 ft 9 in) from the surrounding ground, and forming a parapet 1.2 m (4 ft) from the basement. Access to the top of the basement was obtained by thirty-one flights of steps, some large and some quite small, the principal of which are those at the eastern and western extremities. Great Audience Hall This hall itself is made up of three parts: the North (or Left) Audience Hall, and the South (or Right) Audience Hall; they were so called because, when the king was seated on the throne, facing the east, the first was to his left and the second to his right. These two parts or wings are connected by a transept running east to west from the flight of steps up to the railing around the throne; this transept was called the Central Audience Hall, because