from the southern mountains. A similar arrangement existed in Urga (present-day Ulaanbaatar) where the southern part of the city close to the river and mountain was reserved for the Khan whereas the ger districts expanded to the north. William of Rubruck states that the Khan's Palace in Karakorum was "like a church, with a middle nave, and two sides beyond two rows of pillars, and with three doors to the south, and beyond the middle door on the inside stands the tree, and the Khan sits in a high place to the north, so that he can be seen by all; and two rows of steps go up to him: by one he who carries his cup goes up, and by the other he comes down. The space which is in the middle between the tree and these steps by which they go up to him is empty; for here stands his cup-bearer, and also envoys bearing presents; and he himself sits up there like a divinity. On (his) right side, that is to the west, are the men, to the left the women." This was in line with the internal arrangement of a Mongolian ger, as William of Rubruck states separately in his account: "When they have fixed their dwelling, the door turned to the south, they set up the couch of the master on the north side. The side for the women is always the east side, that is to say, on the left of the house of the master, he sitting on his couch his face turned to the south. The side for the men is the west side, that is, on the right." This arrangement, as well as the avoidance of touching the entrance threshold (mentioned by Rubruck), has continued down to the present-day among Mongols. Apart from the permanent palace of Karakorum there was the moving palace of the Khan which regularly moved around the city and settled in a ring shape (Huriye or circular enclosure) on its stops. William of Rubruck served as a priest of the Khan (along with a healer monk from Jerusalem) for four months in this moving palace before entering Karakorum in April 1254 with the Khan and his moving palace. Despite the destruction of the permanent palace by the Ming in 1388 there was still a moving palace in the region until 1585 when the senior Genghisid of the