The hard palate is a thin horizontal bony

Bone

Bones are rigid organs that constitute part of the endoskeleton of vertebrates. They support, and protect the various organs of the body, produce red and white blood cells and store minerals. Bone tissue is a type of dense connective tissue...

 plate of the skull

Human skull

The human skull is a bony structure, skeleton, that is in the human head and which supports the structures of the face and forms a cavity for the brain.In humans, the adult skull is normally made up of 22 bones...

, located in the roof of the mouth. It spans the arch formed by the upper teeth.

It is formed by the palatine process of the maxilla and horizontal plate of palatine bone

Horizontal plate of palatine bone

The horizontal part of the palatine bone is quadrilateral, and has two surfaces and four borders.- Surfaces :The superior surface, concave from side to side, forms the back part of the floor of the nasal cavity....

.

It forms a partition between the nasal passages and the mouth

Mouth

The mouth is the first portion of the alimentary canal that receives food andsaliva. The oral mucosa is the mucous membrane epithelium lining the inside of the mouth....

. Also on the anterior portion of the roof of the hard palate is the Rugae which are the irregular ridges in the mucous membrane that help facilitate the movement of food backwards towards the pharynx.