South of Bab El Mansour lies this public garden and car park that's a popular place with local families in the evening – less raucous than Place El Hedim, and with more places to sit. In the past it was the parade ground where Moulay Ismail once inspected his famed Black Guard, which started with some 16,000 enslaved men from sub-Saharan Africa. By the time of his death, the guard had expanded tenfold and had chased out both European and Ottoman troops.