The earth is quite flat here and has been for some time, so there's none of the drama of rounding a bend and stumbling on the palace in all its magnificence. Instead, for nigh half a day you've seen the stone-walled compound and the metropolis surrounding it fully in view, just mouse-sized in the distance.
As the hours tick away, that mouse-sized world has grown cat-sized, then dog-sized, then Bandochel-sized, then larger and larger by stages into something awfully grand for such a one as you.
By the time you're actually inside the City of Hondelet, with its crowded many-storied homes and raucous markets, you practically feel miniaturized by the overwhelming environs, like an ant in a wolf-pack.