Aghlabid Basins

Just outside the northern walls of Kairouan, the Aghlabid Basins are among the largest hydraulic works of the medieval Islamic world. Completed in the 860s under the Aghlabid emir Abu Ibrahim Ahmad, they were fed by an aqueduct and by rainwater. A smaller settling basin passes water into a large circular reservoir about 128 m across, whose walls are strengthened by rounded buttresses; a central pillar once supported a pavilion used by the emirs. The site is compact, and the best view is from the terrace of the visitor building next to the basins.