The Government Compound, Sarāya al-Hukūmah (External sighting from the main street)

The government compound is located at the head of the road that leads to al-Qaryūn quarter. It faces the clock tower directly. The Sarāya is a congregation of buildings comprising rooms and halls. The first floor was set for the police and the mounted gendarmerie. The prison was situated on the ground floor. The court was on the western side, and next to it there was a room for the Islamic court which included a large hall for the mayor.

Historical Section
The building's proportion: The building's proportion was determined based on the oral accounts of the people of Nablus and some architectural elements. (Below).
History: The layout of the palace and the architectural elements that prevail in it, represented by the arched entrance to the building located on the first floor (the prison) and the large stable in which the horses are still kept despite its conversion into a shop, as well as the style of its roofing with intersecting vaults and the local style in the use of its building stones, indicate that it dates back to the style of traditional local architecture that draws its elements from Mamluk architecture and Ottoman architecture, before modern architectural styles were adopted. A specific date for the time of the palace's construction is not available, but if it is taken into consideration that the palace is the headquarters of the Ottoman ruler, and that it is a symbol of authority and administration, it is likely that the building dates back to the first decades of Ottoman rule, which qualifies it to be attributed to the architecture of the tenth/sixteenth century, even though the local character of the architecture prevails over it.
It is assumed with confidence that this palace continued to operate throughout the Ottoman era as a multi-purpose administrative center.

Founder and builders: It was rebuilt by the Ottoman government in the tenth century AH/sixteenth century AD.

Modern (later) history: By the end of 1918 AD and Turkey's loss in World War I, and the beginning of the British Mandate rule, the building ceased its role as a government headquarters, and the Endowments Department took over its supervision, where a section was sold and another section was rented and it was transformed into residential and commercial warehouses, as it is today.

Architectural description
The palace consists of a large building consisting of two floors of construction with many sections of different sizes that can be technically divided into the following:
1. The northeastern section
Overlooking the courtyard gate, extending from north to south, and on the first floor of it stands the large and old stable building, its plan is rectangular in shape, preceded by an entrance with a semi-circular stone arch overlooking the courtyard gate and covered by a cross vault of a local construction style, and next to it to the east are two warehouses.
On the western side of the stable, there is a stone staircase leading up to the second floor, where there are many rooms, preceded by wooden mashrabiyas, which are the rooms for the residence of the Turkish governor of the city and overlook the door of the square.
2. The southwestern section
The southwestern section recedes from the level of the northeastern section to the middle of the western outer wall of the stable. The first floor of this section consists of a large, spacious western hall that was known as the women's prison. Its entrance is high, and its ceiling is covered by a cross-vault in a local style. There is also a southern hall that was used as a prison for men or detainees. It has a northern entrance that is 2 m high and 2 m wide. On both sides of the entrance are a small stone niche, topped by a stone arch, then rows of stone courses, all within another larger arch. The entrance leads to a rectangular hall extending east-west and covered with intersecting vaults. Between this southern hall and the western hall on the western and eastern sides is an archway over the public road with intersecting vaults overlooking the public road with two arches. Below the archway between the two halls is a western stone staircase leading to the second floor of this southwestern section, where it first heads west and then breaks south into corridors and stairs on which are distributed the rooms of the second floor of different sizes, the largest of which is the room above the archway that overlooks the public road with two windows above which is a circular (lunar) opening.