"The problem of Bit Hilani" is the title of one of the parts of Chapter 5 of the first volume of the Hellenistic Temple of Oxus in Bactria (Southern Tajikistan), a monumental work of two scientists [Litvinsky and Pichikyan, 2000] - Boris Anatolyevich Litvinsky and Igor Rubenovich Pichikyan, with whom the author of these lines was lucky enough to work together in the Department of History and Culture of Ancient Tajikistan. Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Unfortunately, I. R. Pichikyan has not been with us for a long time. B. A. Litvinsky published only one volume for the second time (Litvinsky, 2002), while the third volume (Litvinsky, 2010) was not destined to survive. This work is dedicated to the bright memory of Boris Anatolyevich. Keywords: bit hilani, New Assyrian springs, Hittite architecture, Amurru, Syria, Mari, columned portico, gate entrance, origin and evolutionary development. "Bit hilani" is a term known to us mainly from New Assyrian sources (acc. also [CAD, 6, p. 184-185]), in which it was used to designate a certain (non-Assyrian) type of architectural structures. It would seem that there are no problems: the term is there, the buildings are there! However, since the end of the XIX century. (when the term "bit hilani" was first associated with one of the buildings of Dur-Sharrukin [Puchstein, 1892, p.2-3]), the controversy about what is hidden under it does not subside. B. A. Litvinsky could not stay away either. For the sake of justice, it is necessary to say that there is probably no more detailed bibliographic review of concepts related to the appearance and development of buildings of the "bit hilani" type in Russian. However, Boris Anatolyevich was interested in the problem of bit Hilani primarily in the context of the genesis of the forms of Iranian fire temples, so in his review he focused on quite specific architectural elements, adhering in general to the point of view of R. Koldevey, F. Ohlmann, F. Vakhtsmu ... Read more