These 12th-century gardens are located to the west of Marrakesh in the Hivernage neighbourhood, practically at the foot of the Atlas Mountains. The major attraction, a large 200-metre-long artificial lake, is located in the heart of the gardens surrounded by the Menara pavilion and thousands of olive trees that are watered by a millennium-old system of underground pipes that draw water from the snowmelt in the Atlas Mountains. The gardens offer a different sight depending on the time of year you visit: in winter and spring the snow-capped Atlas rise up in the distance, in summer the gardens are a cool, quiet oasis and in autumn visitors can see the olive harvest.