Volubilis, Morroco

The Romans were everywhere around the Mediterranean, and they were not shy about building things whereever they went, and Morocco is no exception.  These 2,000 year old ruins are amongst the oldest things still standing in Morocco, but apparently not many tourists venture here, so consider a side trip here if you are in either Fes or Rabat. 

This city of 20,000 was the westernmost extremity of an empire that once stretched to the gates of Persia. The sprawling floor plans of its buildings and brilliant and numerous floor mosaics suggest great wealth.

The site is dominated by the remains of the grand public buildings around the forum, with the impressive arches of the Basilica courthouse arrayed in front of pillars of the temple to the god Jupiter – now topped by bushy stork nests. Every old ruin in Morocco appears to host its own of population of the large black and white birds, which soar over the sites or preen in their nests as tourists snap away with cameras.  When they start clacking their beaks in chorus, it sends an eerie chattering noise across the ancient stones.

Emperor Caracalla, who bestowed citizenship on the empire's inhabitants in A.D. 212, marks the beginning of the city's main street, with houses with gorgeous mosaic floors.  For those used to seeing such mosaics painstakingly wrought out of tiny colored stones in museums, it is a surprise to see them set in the ground marked off by little more than a moldy barrier of rope.  In one massive floor mosaic, Orpheus charms wild animals with his harp while in another room, dolphins frolic through the waves of what must have been the bathroom.

Greek myths predominate as subject matter. In one villa, licentious nymphs carry off the handsome Hylas, son of Hercules, who looks shocked.  In another, the hunter Acteon surprises the goddess Diana bathing – an unfortunate story that ends with Diana turning the hapless interloper into a stag to be torn apart by his own dogs.  Depictions of Greek and Roman gods of wine, Dionysius and Bacchus, are everywhere, suggesting the inhabitants liked their grape. Nearby Meknes remains the center of Morocco's wine production.  Other mosaics depict geometric patterns that are repeated in the Berber rugs that can be bought in nearby mountain villages.  The quality of work attests to the wealth of the town, which came from olive orchards and wheat fields that fill the valley around the ruin.

The city's other main export was wild animals, including lions, jaguars and bears that went to fight and die in Rome's colosseum. Within just 200 years, the beast population in the area was devastated and indigenous species like the Barbary Lion and Atlas Bear had all but ceased to exist.

Volubilis was once the capital of Berber king Juba II, who was raised in Rome and went on to marry the daughter of doomed lovers, Anthony and Cleopatra. After his successor Ptolemy was murdered by the unstable Emperor Caligula for the crime of wearing too beautiful a robe, Morocco was made into the Roman province of Mauretania Tingitania in A.D. 40.  The site continued to be inhabited even after the embattled empire pulled out its legions 240 years later, and was reported to still be speaking Latin when the Arabs arrived in the eighth century.