Jardins d'Essais Botaniques

The Jardins d'Essais were laid out in 1914 by the French horticulturalist Jean-Claude-Nicolas Forestier as Rabat's botanical test garden — tropical palms, Mediterranean and Asian plantings, a formal French parterre, a Japanese garden, and a long aviary of Moroccan birds. Seventeen hectares of paths, ponds, and shade at the edge of the Ville Nouvelle, restored between 2002 and 2013 by a royal foundation. It's the city's most popular park, free to enter, and a calm contrast to the monument-heavy medina and Hassan esplanade.