The name "Agdal" comes from the Berber langauge and means "meadow on the banks of a wadi encolsed with a stone wall". The Almoravids laid out an orchard garden in the 12th century. Water was brought from the Ourika Valley by a network of underground channels and ditches. Agdal comprises several linked gardens, with one leading on to the next, including an orange grove and an olive plantation. In the nineteenth century the gardens were enlarged and enclosed with pise walls. A lake, called the Tank of Health, is probably as old as the orchards old but was re-shaped at this time with pavilions overlooking the water.