Agdal Gardens

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The Dar El Hana pavilion stands next to the Sahraj el-Hana.

Wall around the gardens

The Agdal Gardens (or Aguedal Gardens) are gardens, of about 400 hectares (4.0 km²; 1.5 sq mi) of surface, to the south of Dar El Makhzen, the Royal Palace, and the medina in Marrakech, Morocco. Their name derives from the Berber language for "walled meadow". Extending for some 3 kilometres (1.9 mi), the gardens include groves of orange, lemon, fig, apricot and pomegranate trees in rectangular plots, linked by olive-lined walkways.

Together with the medina of Marrakech and the Menara Gardens, the Agdal Gardens were listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in 1985.

History

The gardens were created as an orchard by Abd al-Mu'min of the Almohad dynasty in the 12th century.

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Aerial view

They were renovated by the Saadi dynasty and then enlarged during the reign of Moulay Abderrahmane in the 19th century, when they were enclosed with pisé walls.

Irrigation System

The gardens are irrigated using a number of pools and ditches. A network of underground channels and ditches, known as khettera, bring water down from the High Atlas mountains many kilometres away, via Aghmat in the Ourika Valley to the south.

The Dar El Hana, a small pavilion or minzah, stands beside the largest pool, the Sahraj el-Hana (Tank of Health), which was used to train troops to swim. Sultan Mohammed IV died in the pool when his steam launch capsized there in 1873. His successor, Sultan Moulay Hassan, housed his harem in another pavilion in the gardens, the Dar al Baida.

See also

• Menara Garden
• Majorelle Garden

References

• Page at gardenvisit.com
• Footprint travel guides (text from Footprint Marrakech & the High Atlas Handbook: The Travel Guide, p. 102, Published by Footprint Travel Guides, 2001, ISBN 1-903471-12-5)
• Travelingo.org (text from The Rough Guide to Morocco, p. 370, Published by Rough Guides, 2001, ISBN 1-85828-601-8)
• UNESCO listing
• Richard Covington, The art and science of water, 2006, Saudi Aramco World