Abu Yusuf Ya'qub, who founded Fes el-Jdid as a new Marinid royal city in 1276, had also wished to create a vast royal pleasure garden, perhaps in emulation of those he might have admired in Granada (such as the Generalife); however, he died in 1286 before this could be accomplished.[1][2] His son and successor, Abu Ya'qub Yusuf, carried out the work instead in 1287.[2] He enlisted an Andalusian engineer, Ibn al-Hajj from Seville, to help create a vast garden to the north of Fes el-Jdid, along with the water distribution infrastructure required to maintain it.[3][2] Among these works was a famous and enormous noria which raised water from the Oued Fes (Fes River) up to an aqueduct that then ran north from Bab Dekkakin to Bab Segma.