Morocco: Ancient Roman city of Volubilis

October 2, 2013 - Countries Visited Index, Morocco, Travels - Tagged: Morocco, Roman ruins, travel - no comments

As part of a day trip out of Fes we spent an hour or so at the UNESCO World Heritage archaeological site of Volubilis. Volubilis had been the Roman city that grew rich from olive farming. Set on a hill with sweeping views, it’s easy to see why the Romans chose this spot. It was inhabited by the Romans from 3rd century BC until the 3rd century AD. By the 8th century it had been abandoned as the centre of power had moved to Fes and Meknes.

The site itself is in pretty good condition and you can see the restoration and patching up that has been done to some pillars and walls giving you an indication of what it must have once looked like. You can wander freely with or without a guide, though the mosaics are cordoned off to stop people walking on them.

As we walked we wondered what had happened to the rest of the ‘rubble’ and this question was answered by our driver as he took us around the old town of Meknes later that afternoon. “See those pillars? They were brought here from Volubilis.” Ah.

It was a surprisingly good site for T. who could walk about freely, look out for donkeys and also play hide and seek and ‘spot the picture’ as we hunted for mosaics. We chose not to take a guide (less boring for T.), but I think taking one would help to de-code what you are looking at. I looked it up after the visit.

Although there were a few tour groups going around, it certainly doesn’t receive hoards of tourists and we were able to walk around peacefully and take some fantastic pictures.