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The Agdal is a confusingly large expanse - some 3km in extent and with half a dozen smaller irrigation pools in addition to its grand bassin . Beginning just south of the Mellah and Royal Palace, it is a logical continuation of a tour of the Lower Medina. Take the road outside the ramparts below Bab Agnaou/Bab Er Robb, and then turn left as you are about to leave the city at Bab Irhli; this route will take you through a mechouar (parade ground) by the Royal Palace and to the corner gate of the garden. The garden is often closed during the winter months, if the king is in residence in Marrakesh. The garden is watered by an incredible system of wells and underground channels, known as khettera , that go as far as the base of the Atlas in the Ourika Valley and that date, in part, from the earliest founding of the city. Over the centuries, the channels have at times fallen into disrepair and the gardens been abandoned, but the present nineteenth-century layout probably differs little from any of its predecessors. It is surrounded by walls, with gates at each of the near corners, while inside, the orange, fig, lemon, apricot and pomegranate orchards are divided into square, irrigated plots by endless raised walkways and broad avenues of olive trees. If you walk out here, it is around 4km from Djemaa El Fna, and a further 2km of unsignposted paths to the main series of pools at its heart. The largest of these is the Sahraj El Hana (Tank of Health), which was probably dug by the Almohads and is flanked by a ramshackle old minzah , or summer pavilion, where the last few precolonial sultans held picnics and boating parties. You can climb up on its roof for a fabulous view over the park and across to the Koutoubia and Atlas, and if the caretaker's around, you'll be shown the steam-powered launch which capsized in 1873, bringing Sultan Sidi Mohammed to his death - or, as his epitaph rather more elegantly put it, he "departed this life, in a water tank, in the hope of something  © 2003 by Rough Guides Ltd. as trustee for its Authors. Published by Rough Guides. All rights reserved. Rough Guides name is a trademark of Rough Guides Ltd. Buy the book here!
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better to come". The launch is in a wooden shed and, failing the caretaker, you could peep between the warped planks. Nowadays, probably the most dangerous thing you could do here would be to swim in the algae-ridden waters, though the kids do it and it does look unbelievably tempting. It's perhaps better just to pick up some food beforehand - and perhaps a bottle of wine from the Gueliz - and spread out a picnic in local fashion on the paved, shaded pathway round the water's edge
Your Tips For Jardin Agdal
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