The excavators of Pasargadae identified Palace S as a reception hall, because it was halfway the gate and the residential Palace P. The white column they reerected, the oldest known stone pillar in Iran, is more than 13 meters high, which gives an indication of the size of the building. The black capitals resembled bulls, griffins, lions, and horses. The first three of these types are also known from Persepolis.

The hall itself was 32¼ x 22¼ meters, which means that it's oblong, just like Palace P and the buildings at Godin Tepe and Tepe Nush-e Jan, but unlike the palaces of Persepolis. The two structures on the second picture are corners of this hall. Like the monument above, there is an inscription in the Old Persian cuneiform script. Because this type of writing was designed in 521 - it was used for the first time in the Behistun Inscription, which also states that this "Aryan script" was designed especially for the purpose - the text in the Palaces P and S must have been added by Darius I the Great. Probably, this king, an usurper, tried to show continuity with the founder of the Persian Empire by stressing that they belonged to the same Achaemenid family. The text of inscription CMa is: