While we were staying in Fes, we took a day trip to Meknes and Volubilis. Meknes, one of the imperial cities of old Morocco, did not make much of an impression on us but Volubilis is a gem.
First, let’s put on some Morocco traditional music made with an Oud – a type of lute. In Fes, IT booked a tutor to learn how to play the oud.
Volubilis was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997. See its record here. Most of what is written below came from UNESCO and Wikipedia.
Covering an area of 42 hectares, it is of outstanding importance demonstrating urban development and Romanisation at the frontiers of the Roman Empire and the graphic illustration of the interface between the Roman and indigenous cultures. Because of its isolation and the fact that it had not been occupied for nearly a thousand years, it presents an important level of authenticity. It is one of the richest sites of this period in North Africa, not only for its ruins but also for the great wealth of its epigraphic evidence.
Volubilis is a partly excavated Berber city and commonly considered as the ancient capital of the kingdom of Mauretania. Built in a fertile agricultural area, it developed from the 3rd century BC onward as a Berber settlement before becoming the capital of the kingdom of Mauretania.
It grew rapidly under Roman rule in the 1st century AD with a 2.6 km (1.6 mi) circuit of walls, 8 gates and 40 towers and around 20,000 inhabitants – a very substantial population for a Roman provincial town. The city gained a number of major public buildings in the 2nd century, including a basilica, a temple and a triumphal arch. Its prosperity, which was derived principally from olive growing, allowed the construction of many fine town-houses with large mosaic floors. We saw many surviving mosaic floors on the site.
The city fell to local tribes around 285 and was never retaken by Rome because of its indefensibility (flat landscape) and remoteness being on the south-western border of the Roman Empire. It continued to be inhabited for at least another 700 years, first as a Christian community, then as an early Islamic settlement.
In the late 8th century it became the seat of Idris ibn Abdallah, the founder of the Idrisid dynasty of Morocco. By the 11th century Volubilis had been abandoned after the seat of power was relocated to Fes. Much of the local population was transferred to the new town of Moulay Idriss Zerhoun, about 5 km (3.1 mi) from Volubilis.
The ruins remained substantially intact until they were devastated by the 1755 Lisbon Earthquake and subsequently looted by Moroccan rulers seeking stone for building Meknes. It was not until the latter part of the 19th century that the site was definitively identified as that of the ancient city of Volubilis.
During and after the period of French rule over Morocco (started in 1890 until 1955), about half of the site was excavated, revealing many fine mosaics, and some of the more prominent public buildings and high-status private houses were restored or reconstructed. The Arch of Caracalla is one of Volubilis’ most distinctive sights, situated at the end of the city’s main street, the Decumanus Maximus.
The basilica was used for the administration of justice and the governance of the city.
Completed in the early 3rd century, it was one of the finest Roman basilicas in Africa.
The Capitoline temple
Some of the houses were apparently luxurious residences which had private baths and a richly decorated interior, with fine mosaics showing animal and mythological scenes.
The houses have been named by archaeologists after their principal mosaics or other finds.
Many of the mosaics were protected by a rope barrier to prevent people to walk over and wear down the tiles.
The city was apparently supplied with water by an aqueduct that ran from a spring in the hills behind the city. An elaborate network of channels fed houses and the public baths from the municipal supply. The bath shown here can accommodate more than 10 people sitting in the round stone seats. This is truly remarkable.
Our tour guide was very helpful and took us for a walking tour of first the major public buildings and then the private homes, and down the main street, Decumanus Maximus.
The site also has a small modern museum showing a movie about the city and displaying some excavated pieces. Apparently, the best pieces were moved and are on display in the capital and Tangier.
UNESCO commented that the archaeological site of Volubilis is an outstanding example of a focal point for the different kinds of immigration, cultural traditions and lost cultures (Libyco-Berber and Mauritanian, Roman, Christian and Arabo-Islamic) to exchange influences since High Antiquity until the Islamic period.
We are very glad to have chosen Volubilis to spend half a day.