[6] According to the 11th-century Andalusi geographer al-Bakri, the Umayyad caliph Hisham (r. 724–743) ordered the construction of 15 water reservoirs outside Kairouan, but these have not survived to the present day.

[9] Another Aghlabid water reservoir that has been preserved up to modern times was built to supply their new capital at Raqqada (founded in 876[10]), near Kairouan.

[7] There are two surviving reservoirs today, located close to each other at a short distance north of the old city (medina) of Kairouan.

The basins, circular in appearance, are built with rubble stone and covered in a waterproof coating, with rounded tops and edges.

[9][6] In the middle of the largest water basin today is a polylobed masonry pillar which may have been part of the foundations of a leisure pavilion used by the rulers.

The pillar is 2.85 metres wide but Georges Marçais suggested that the pavilion was likely supported by corbels which would have allowed it to have a wider floor.

[7][1] During the Aghlabid period, water was brought to the city and the reservoirs from the surrounding plains and lowlands by drawing it from Oued Merguellil and its tributaries.