Standing Archway at Volubilis
Volubilis is a UNESCO World Heritage known for its Roman ruins. I know I have visited a few ancient Roman cities before but this is the last place I would have expected to see an ancient Roman city. The city was prosperous because of their olive produce which allowed the citizen to build a nice city. The city was later taken over by local tribes and then by Muslim settlers and finally abandoned. The rest of the city was then salvaged for material for the construction of the royal city of Meknès, which is a pity. The site was actually larger than I thought it would be. From afar, I thought it would be easy to go around the place in an hour but I now think that would be pushing it.
Mosaic in Volubilis
Fortunately, there is a nice walking route to explore Volubilis. There is a diagram which tells you which direction to go so you know you won’t be missing anything. Another thing I like about this place what that they have signs here which describe what you are seeing. I think the management would agree that it would be difficult to understand what is being shown if all you see is a ruined building. This is in contrast to the other places I have been to in Morocco where you are pretty much left on your own. A lot of the places here are open apart from places where there is a mosaic on the floor which is probably the most important feature in Volubilis. In fact, it is only through these mosaics on the ground that you can tell individual sites apart.
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