The palace was excavated with the rest of the city from the 1930s by French archaeologist Claude F. A. Schaeffer and is considered one of the most important finds made at Ugarit.

The palace's main gate was protected by an array of towers, dubbed the Fortress, with 5 metres (16 ft) thick walls.

[1][3] It was built out of ashlar stone blocks and wooden crossbeams, with a thick coat of plain plaster covering the walls.

[2] The fortified wall, which dates back to the 15th-century BC, was built with packed stones at the bottom and had an outward slope of 45 degrees.

[1] After the chance discovery of Ugarit by local peasants in 1929, French archaeologist, Claude F. A. Schaeffer led ten excavation campaigns at the site which only covered the northwest corner.

They included administrative reports about Ugarit's dependencies, judicial records, official correspondence with other rulers and even practice tablets that new scribes used to learn writing.