In 1057 the Zirids abandoned it for el-Mahdia, and it was never occupied again. Its building materials were later used by the inhabitants of Kairouan. As of 2009 the site of the city was a wasteland, crossed by many ditches, surrounded by the homes of poor people. Anything that could be reused for construction or other purposes has been scavenged during the centuries since it was abandoned. Stones, bricks, glass and metal were all removed. Little survived except fragments of unusable stucco. Aerial surveys of the site have confirmed that there was a very large artificial enclosure, roughly circular in shape, within which are what is left of several circular and rectangular basins. The basins may be identified with the artificial pools described by the court poet Ali ibn Muhammad el-Iyadi, which surrounded the palace. The foundations have been revealed through archaeological excavations. Traces of the great hall's columns are still visible. Some parts of the canal can still be seen. A minor excavation was undertaken by George Marçais in the 1920s. Slimane Mostafa Zbiss conducted a more thorough excavation in the 1950s of the palace in the southeast quadrant of the city. Further excavations by a Franco-Tunisian team were made around the southeast palace in the late 1970s, ending in 1982. 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. A more careful project was undertaken between 2003 and 2008, with more effort made to place the stucco fragments. There is evidence of multiple phases of occupation with different styles of decoration, including flower and leaf patterns, geometric patterns, animal and human figures and epigraphy. Some decorations resemble pre-Islamic Tunisian work, while others are common to other Islamic sites. 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.