APPENDIX L.
Notes on the Roman Remains known to the Moors as the Castle of Pharaoh, near Mouley Edris el Kebir.
Communicated by Messrs. W. H. Richardson and H. B. Brady, F.R.S.
Learning that a party of English travellers had visited these ruins in the spring of 1878, and believing that they had not been seen by any European traveller since Jackson visited the place early in the present century, we were anxious for information respecting them; and in reply to our request we received an account of their visit kindly drawn up by Messrs. W. H. Richardson and H. B. Brady, F.R.S. We have also been favoured with the loan of a sketch executed by Mr. G. T. Biddulph, who formed one of the same party, from which the vignette given [p. 487] is taken.
After the notes were in the hands of the printer the appearance in the ‘Academy,’ No. 32, p. 581, of a very full account of the ruins by Dr. Leared, already well known as a successful Marocco traveller, informed us that the ruins had been visited by him in 1877, in company with the members of the Portuguese mission to the Sultan, and about the same time by some members of the German Diplomatic Mission. Dr. Leared has fully succeeded in establishing the identity of the so-called Castle, or Palace, of Pharaoh with the Roman town of Volubilis, and has left little to be said on that point. Nevertheless the ruins are interesting enough to make the additional notes of other travellers useful and valuable; and we have therefore availed ourselves of the greater part of the paper kindly sent to us by Messrs. Richardson and Brady.
‘One of the points we had determined to visit on our tour was the ruin known by the Moors as “Pharaoh’s Palace,” or “Pharaoh’s Tomb.” The time of our journey was in some respects unfortunate for visiting places held in veneration by the natives; we were, in fact, staying in Fez at the time of Mohammed’s birthday, when religious fanaticism exhibits itself, not merely in holidays and powder-play, alternating with devotional exercises, but in processions to the shrines of saints, and in sundry manifestations of ill-will to unbelievers. We had considerable difficulty in obtaining intelligible information as to the exact site of the ruins. Our idea had been that they ought to have been accessible from the road between Alcazar and Fez, striking off near Sidi Guiddar. The interpreter and the mounted soldiers who were with us, overruled this when it was proposed, and we therefore continued our journey. They were probably right; but in our various conversations with them on the subject they managed to convey the impression that either they did not themselves know the precise locality, or that they did not intend that we should visit the place.
‘During our stay in Fez we were joined by two Englishmen, Messrs. G. T. Biddulph, and F. A. O’Brien, whose acquaintance we had made in Tangier, and we proceeded to Mekinez in company. Mekinez is a sort of Mecca to the Aissowies—the most fanatical of all the sects of western Mohammedans—and the road was thronged with devotees returning from their annual pilgrimage to the city of Mohammed-ben-Aissa, their prophet. We were kindly received by the Lieutenant Bashaw (Kaïd Hamo), who seemed desirous to forward our views in every way in his power. He thought it necessary on our departure to provide us with a soldier who knew the district thoroughly, so that altogether we had a guard of four regular soldiers. Thus furnished, the tone of our interpreter changed, and we had no more obstacles thrown in our way.
‘We proposed to make the Roman station the first stage on our road from Mekinez to Rabat. Whether it would have been better to have taken it, as we had originally intended, on the way to Fez, or subsequently, between Fez and Mequinez, it is needless now to inquire; it certainly is a good deal out of the direct route between Mekinez and Rabat, if maps are to be trusted. However, we got on the way on March 23 a little after 10 A.M. The site of the ruin is some fifteen miles north-west of Mekinez, at no great distance from Mouley Edris el Kebir; both are on the southern slopes of one of the ranges that constitute the Lesser Atlas. There was little of interest by the way. Part of the road was on the horizon of a bed of white, friable, microzoic, tertiary limestone, which forms a conspicuous feature in the mountain strata of this district. This is traceable for a great distance, and its exposure at one or two points in the heights to the far east, we had at first mistaken
