Roman ruins of Volubilis.
for snow. After about four hours’ riding we had to diverge from the main road; and here we learned that it would be necessary to encamp at some distance to the south-west, in the last douar within the government of Mekinez. The hill-country, it was said, was so infested by a lawless set of Berebers that we should not be safe out of the jurisdiction of the Bashaw. Before the evening was out we had reason to know that these fears were not entirely groundless. Leaving our servants with the luggage, therefore, we took two soldiers and rode across country to the object of our journey.
‘The ruins stand on a little hill, a mile or more from the road. At the base of the hill runs a bright little mountain stream. The ground for many acres is strewed and heaped with squared stones, the débris of ancient buildings; lines of wall-foundations appear in every direction, and pillar bases in rows or squares, arranged as though for the support of colonnades surrounding courts or patios. The demolition is no doubt largely due to spoliation, but it is also partly the result of the unstable character of the mortar, which has to a great extent weathered out from between the stones. In some of the walls still standing the stones appear to retain their places by their own weight rather than by the help of any cement that is left to hold them together. Two perfect Roman arches still remain, and one or two nearly complete, but even these look as though they might not long withstand the mountain winds.’[1]
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‘In the present condition of the place it is impossible even to guess what was the original ground-plan of the buildings. The principal frontage appears to have had the west aspect, and there is still the remnant of a sort of façade. Amongst the fallen stones of this front is part of an entablature which has borne an inscription in four lines. We could only find one stone of it; and this bore the following letters, about eight inches in height. There were the shafts of many marble columns amongst the fallen stones, and not a few capitals, some simple, others more or less carved with volutes, Ionic fashion, and one at least with the remnant of acanthus leaves, as though derived from a Corinthian building. Some of the mouldings had the common egg and arrow ornament, and there was a portion of a narrow frieze on the western side with one of the common frets of classic architecture formed of a double series of interlacing
curved lines; but beyond these there was but little decorative sculpture. There is clearly a basement storey of very large stones lying underneath the present ground level. Here and there the subsidence of the ground, or the falling in of the masonry, reveals passages and what appear to be small rooms or vaults, with solid, well constructed walls. In the short hour that circumstances permitted us to linger, it was impossible to do more than observe things as they stood. The mere removal of the loose stones would do a good deal, and a very little excavation would do much more, to indicate the history of the original structures, and we have little doubt that many inscribed stones might still be found that would help materially to the same end. On the north side of the western arch and façade is a sort of enclosure formed of loose stones piled together as a rude wall, and whitewashed. This wall has been reared by pilgrims, each of whom has carried and placed a stone, according to their custom, at what they regard as a “saint’s place.”’
Up to the year 1877 no traveller appears to have visited the ruins since Jackson, who twice refers to them in his ‘Account of the Empire of Marocco.’ In a note to p. 21 (3rd Edition, 1814) he says: ‘The father of the Sultan Sulieman built a magnificent palace on the banks of the river of Tafilelt, which bounds his dominions on the eastward; the pillars are of marble, and many of them were transported across the Atlas, having been collected from the (Ukser Farawan) Ruins of Pharaoh near the sanctuary of Muly Dris Zerone, west of Atlas.’ In another place (p. 146) he says: ‘When I visited these ruins in my journey from the sanctuary of Muly Dris Zerone, near to which they are situated, in the plain below, the jealousy of the (Stata) protecting guide sent by the Fakeers to see me safe to the confines of their district was excited, and he endeavoured to deter me from making any observations by insinuating that the place was the haunt of large and venomous serpents, scorpions, &c. A good number of cauldrons and kettles filled with gold and silver coins have been excavated from these ruins.’
FOOTNOTES:
[1]The vignette is taken from a sketch by G. T. Biddulph, Esq.