← Back to the mapTriumphal Arch of Caracalla at the Roman ruins of Volubilis, Morocco
Modern photograph of the Arch of Caracalla, Volubilis · Wikimedia Commons

Volubilis

Mauretania Tingitana · Roman province·Morocco·Founded 3rd c. BCE (Berber)

Frontier city at the edge of the empire, only recently annexed (44 CE). Olive-oil boom town.

An uninhabited UNESCO World Heritage site near Meknes, Morocco; abandoned in the 11th century, its stones later quarried to help build Meknes.

Excavation history

1887
Henri de la Martiniere and later Marcel and Jane Dieulafoy — Conducted early exploratory work at Volubilis before formal French administration of the site began.
1915-1941
Louis Chatelain (Service des Antiquites du Maroc, ordered by Resident-General Hubert Lyautey) — Directed systematic French Protectorate-era excavation that uncovered the basilica, Capitoline temple, and many mosaic-floored townhouses; about half the city has been excavated in total.

Notable finds

Bronze Bust of Juba II
Bronze Bust of Juba II
Cast around 25 BCE, this bronze portrait catches Juba II, the Roman-educated Berber king who ruled Mauretania as a client of Augustus, as a young man — one of the finest surviving bronzes from Roman North Africa.
Museum of History and Civilizations, Rabat
Bronze Bust of Cato the Younger
Bronze Bust of Cato the Younger
Cast around 60 CE and dug up in Volubilis's House of Venus, this bust shows the Republican statesman Cato the Younger, dead over a century earlier — a sign of how his reputation for old-fashioned stubborn virtue still sold as home decor among wealthy provincials.
Museum of History and Civilizations, Rabat
Ephebe Crowned with Ivy
French excavators pulled this bronze youth, wearing Bacchus's ivy crown and missing only its glass-paste eyes, from Volubilis's House of the Ephebe in 1932 — the house was renamed for the statue on the spot.
Museum of History and Civilizations, Rabat
Open Volubilis on the interactive map →

Roman Maps shows the empire frozen at 11 August 117 CE, the day Trajan died — its moment of greatest territorial extent. Explore the full map →