The Secret Garden is in the Marrakesh medina near the Mouassine Mosquue. It was restored and opened to the public in March 2016 and I had not seen it before.
It is built on the site of a former palace first built in Saadian times but rebuilt in the 1860s. In 1912 it was taken by a now redundant courtier who lived there with his 3 wives and numerous children.until his death in 1934. Because of Islamic inheritance laws the site was divided and subdivided until at the millennium it was owned by 130 different people, some owning only a few square metres and with many ramshackle makeshift buildings covering the site. By 2007 an Italian had managed to aquire most of the site and in 2013 a restoration programme was started. Initially an archaeological was made which found traces of the original Saadian buildings and crucially the original water distribution system.
Marrakesh owes its existence to a complex system of underground pipes and canals first constructed by the Almoravids in the 12C which brought water from the Atlas. The water was distributed with a supply to each mosque and its associated fountain which is why the palace was built near the mosque. The garden system worked by tiny changes in level allowing the whole garden and fountains to be fed by gravity. The buildings were restored and decorated with tadelakt,
stucco and zellige. The intricate traditional painting of the pavilion over the central fountain was still being completed.
and the internal roofing replaced
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