Built between 946 and 972, el-Mansuriya was a walled city holding elaborate palaces surrounded by gardens, artificial pools and water channels.

The Fatimid Caliphate originated in an Ismaili Shia movement launched in Syria by Abd Allah al-Akbar.

[4] He claimed descent through Ismail, the seventh Shia imam, from the Islamic prophet Muhammad's daughter Fatimah.

The Fatimid Caliphate grew to include Sicily and to stretch across North Africa from the Atlantic Ocean to Libya.

El-Mansur launched his campaign against Abu Yazid, and by August 946 had gained the upper hand in the battle for control of Kairouan.

[14] The historian Ibn Hammad described the palace buildings as high and splendid structures surrounded by gardens and waters.

El-Muizz built a new canal on the aqueduct and added a 9 kilometres (5.6 mi) extension to carry water to el-Mansuriya.

However, according to Ibn Muhadhdhab, "el-Muizz commanded the merchants of Kairouan to come to their shops and workshops in el-Mansuriya in the mornings, and to return home to their families in the evenings.

[20] In its heyday, el-Mansuriya was the capital of a state that encompassed most of North Africa from Morocco to Libya, as well as Sicily, although it had to guard against attack from the Byzantine Empire and from King Otto I of Germany, both active in southern Italy.

[21] In 957, an embassy from Byzantium brought the tribute from the Emperor for his occupation of Calabria from there, with gifts of gold and silver vessels adorned with jewels, silks, brocades and other valuables.

[22] In Italy, El-Muizz planned the invasion of Egypt, whose conquest would make the Fatimids rivals in power to the Abbasids in Baghdad.

[24] After the Fatimid caliphs moved to Egypt, el-Mansuriya remained the capital of the Zirids, who became the local rulers, for the next eighty-five years.

Pavilions were built outside the city, a large array of textiles and manufactured good was displayed and music was provided by a great number of instruments.

[17] The basins may be identified with the artificial pools described by the court poet Ali ibn Muhammad el-Iyadi, which surrounded the palace.

[28] Few results have been published from these earlier excavations, and no records were made of the stratigraphic locations of the stucco fragments that were found.

[29] Evidence of cultural exchange with Egypt is less than might be expected, while the remains show a surprising amount of contact with al-Andalus, despite the continuous hostilities between the Fatimids and the Umayyads of the Iberian peninsula.