Volubilis

Yesterday I visited the Roman ruins of Volubilis for the first time. Since it's February, the Moroccan landscape looks like Ireland instead of say, well...Morocco.

Volubilis is remarkable for a number of reasons. For one, it's fairly well-preserved given the lack of European-style attention to archaeological sites. The patterns of mosaics are still visible. Walls two millenia old are decayed but visible. The outline of streets that children used to play in centuries ago are clear as day.

But it's also amazing that the Roman Empire penetrated this far inland in this part of the world. This isn't Tangiers, Ceuta or Melilla, let alone Marseilles or Genoa. Volubilis is a very long march from the Mediterranean Sea, and yet the ruins are quite large. I went with a German obsessed with the Roman Empire, and I couldn't help but point out to her that this remote African location was in the Roman Empire while her birthplace was not.

What's more, Volubilis is a reminder of the connection between the Roman Empire and the Islamic kingdoms and caliphates that filled in the southern half of its domain. A few centuries after the Romans withdrew from the southern half of the Mediterranean basin, the Muslim Arabs filled it right back in, bringing a new religion, language, and culture but also maintaining many aspects of Roman civilization.

The public baths, for instance. The Romans loved their baths. The Arabs were required to use them regularly for religious reasons. Medieval Christians, in contrast, detested bathing. In this area at least, the Arabs were much better holders of Roman heritage than Christian Europe.