Many centuries ago the Romans were controlling the Moroccan territory. They built a lot of cities, and one of them, a significant archeological landmark, Volubilis, is located at the foot of Zerhoun mountain, within a short distance of the city Meknes.

In fact, the Roman city is not the first in that place. People lived here since the Neolithic era. In the 3rd century BC the Phoenicians occupied the territory. However, the settlement appeared on maps only in 25 BC, when Hannibal’s descendant married Cleopatra’s beautiful daughter and started spreading Roman influence in that area.

The Romans had been occupying Moroccan territories for quite a long time, until 300 AC. The reason why they left them is clear, frequent earthquakes destroyed their buildings, killed people, that’s why they made that hard decision: to abandon their acquired places and start looking for new ones. Arabs, Berbers, and Jews settled in that partly destroyed city almost half a century after. At the end of the 8th century, Volubilis became the residence of the first Moroccan ruler.

A terrible earthquake nearly demolished the city in 1755. The streets were covered with lava so that only the tops of the roofs could be seen. The government built a new city, Meknes, and Volubilis was forgotten till 1874, when archeological excavations had begun.

The scientists worked hard and restored most of the city. Straight streets and clear division between blocks for the rich and the poor, the Memorial arc and the temple of Jupiter, the Capitol and the Forum, unique Venice House. All these buildings were partially restored to demonstrate what the city was like. And it was gorgeous. Every house was decorated with exclusive mosaics, images of Neptunus and Orpheus, with peculiar symbolic ornaments, marvelous marble columns holding the roofs.

Today, Volubilis is a place where it is interesting to take a walk to see the grand manner that people of the past preferred living in. And how noticeable is the influence of different cultures on one city: its architecture, its design, and its decoration.