The entire area was made a little more colorful with wild marigolds poking up bright heads between the ruins…View image, and the town of Moulay Idriss (a pilgrimage site for Muslims) was visible in the hills behind Volubilis. Volubilis had probably around 20,000 inhabitants at its height and was finally abandoned in the 18th century. Valuable materials like marble were taken away at that time and used to built Meknes. The “ordinary” or extraordinary sights of Volubilis other than my favorites were:

- The Roman baths (underwhelming to me);

- A place for Romans to do their laundry. A long trough with a toilet at the end of it;

- An incredible Triumphal arch erected in 217 AD to honor the Emperor Caracalla and reconstructed in 1933…View image. Arches were usually located in the outskirts of Roman cities but the Arch of Caracalla was constructed in the center of town;

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- The Forum, dating from the 3rd century BC was flanked by a Basilica and the Capitol. The oldest and most important structures were usually located near a Forum. The graceful Basilica was the meeting place of the senators, tribunal and a commercial center where business and legal matters were transacted.

- Quite a few villas that belonged to the upper class of Romans with world-renowned mosaics. The “Labors of Hercules” house had three different rooms with mosiacs on the floors depicting the 12 labors of Hercules, the Four Seasons and Kidnapping of Ganymede…View image. (In Greek mythology, Ganymede was a beautiful Trojan prince who was kidnapped by Zeus from Mount Ida.) The “House of the Athlete” had a chariot jumper riding a donkey backwards (a Roman joke), and the room next to that was called the Room of the Fisherman because of fish in those mosaics.

It is so much more educational to have a private guide and lots of time to really spend in the sections that interest you, but hindsight is always 20/20 and I can’t always have my druthers. With that, the group set off for the less then two hour ride to Fes, Morocco’s cultural capital and probably the oldest of the Imperial Cities. Olive groves brightened up the ride along with the countless men still riding their donkeys just like the chariot jumper who rode his donkey backwards in the Volubilis mosaic from 2000 years ago…View image…View image.