Volubilis - Roman Ruins in the Moroccan Countryside
On the way from Chefchaouen to Fez, we took a slight detour to visit the past. Around the first century AD to be sort of precise. We were about to walk in the footsteps of the Romans at the ruins of Volubilis - a UNESCO World Heritage site.
The site has been occupied since Neolithic times. After Phoenician occupation, it was a Berber community in the third century BC and then became the capital of Mauritania before the Romans deliberately overtook the site. They chose the land for its fertile soil, access to water and temperate climate. The bountiful olive harvest made it a prosperous city with a basilica, temple, triumphal arch, bathhouse and luxury homes.
We know that wealthy and prominent people resided in Volubilis because of the fine mosaic tile work evident today.
Their floors and fountains were adorned with elaborate designs depicting their mythology or everyday life. Each upper class home had its own olive press and mill.
At its peak, Volubilis housed 20,000 residents. I took some portraits of its current residents.
The main road was lined with shops (121 have been identified in the city) that leads to the Arch of Caracalla which marked the border of the old and new city. It was built in 217 AD on the order of Marcus Aurelius to honour the emperor Carcacalla, but Caracalla was murdered by a usurper to his throne before the arch was finished.
The bathhouse worked like a Nordic spa - hot pool, tepid pool, cold pool, steam.
The basilica was the seat of government and the courts. The Capitoline Temple has a platform for animal sacrifice in front of the 13 steps up. It was likely dedicated to Jupiter, Juno and Minerva.
In the end, local tribes retook the city around 285 AD, inhabiting the city for around 700 years before Idris Ibn Abdallah (the founder of the state of Morocco) claimed it as his seat of power. The city remained largely intact (despite stone being looted to build Meknès) until it was devastated by the Lisbon earthquake in 1755 which registered a magnitude of 9.8!
The French began excavating in 1887 through their colonial occupation. It continues slowly being excavated and restored after gaining UNESCO World Heritage status in 1997.
Back in the bus - which I swear will become my tomb because it is a bascrilliondy degrees with no circulating air and an atmosphere of human body odour and unabashed farts - and we're off to Fes.
We stopped at a roadside stand along the way and had a gourd-geous time buying pomegranates. Ha!
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