One of the main reception halls of the Great Palace in the early and middle byzantine time were the 19 Akubita, the Hall of the Nineteen Couches, where ceremonial dinners were held lying at the table according to ancient Roman custom. Of the 19 Akkubita nothing survives, and it may have been in a ruined state already in 1200.

Similar halls like the one in the Palace of Antiochos allow us to reconstruct it as a longitudinal building with one main apse, where the emperor's couch stood, and nine apses on both long sides containing one couch each.