the afternoon sun shines on the arches of the Basilica, the main administrative building in the ancient Roman city of Volubilis, near Meknes, Morocco. AP Photo/Abdeljalil Bounhar.
Visitors to Morocco usually head straight for the beaches or plunge into the winding alleys of exotic medieval markets, but this rich North African country also has a wealth of ruins from its days as a Roman colony.
Few visit Morocco’s handful of 2,000-year-old sites, but they are well worth the side trip, not least because the ancient city planners had a knack for picking the most stunning locations for their towns. In addition, the lack of tourists gives them a haunted undiscovered feel.
The best sites — Volubilis and Lixus — are easy two-hour drives from the capital Rabat, and a third site, Sala Colonia, is in Rabat.
And while they may lack the ostentatious grandeur of Turkey’s Ephesus or Tunisia’s Carthage, Morocco’s overgrown, often ill-kept ruins have their own charms, in part because they are so often overlooked. The only sound to break the silence during a recent visit to Volubilus, for example, was a donkey rustling through overgrown bushes to crop at weeds around a mosaic depicting the 12 labors of Hercules.
You can read the full article via ArtDaily here.
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