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Home >> Destinations >> Pre-Islamic Morocco
 orocco has long been inhabited. Traces of human settlements along the Atlantic Coast, particularly in the Casablanca region, date back to 800,000 BC, while the Berbers probably settled in the region around 5000 BC. Bronze-age Berber carvings on rocks have been found the High Atlas, while Berber script appeared around 600 BC. A people known as the Atlantes (who gave their name to Morocco’s mountains and its ocean) lived in the region of the Middle Atlas. By 1200 BC, the Phoenicians settled on a few choice coastal areas (Tingis, Melilla, Chellah, and Tamuda) and were later followed by their offshoots in Carthage, the Carthaginians. After the sack of Carthage in 146 BC, the Kingdom of Mauretania was established. (The Berbers were called Mauris by the Greeks, which is why the region was known as Mauretania.) The most famous king of Mauretania was Juba II, great grandson of Cleopatra, a scholar-king who wrote books and developed the country, and whose bust could be seen today at the archeological museum in Rabat. His son Ptolemy was killed by Rome’s deranged emperor, Caligula, after which Rome annexed the kingdom in AD 44, separated the Moroccan part into Mauretania Tingitana, and helped the cities of Tingis, Volubilis, Lixus flourish. Later the Vandals and the Byzantines occupied parts of the country briefly, but the most visible influence of all the pre-Islamic cultures is Roman. Much remains to be discovered or excavated in Morocco, but the traveler who wants to gets a sense of this legacy while visit the country could add the ruins of Cotta in Tangier, Lixus near Larache, and Volubilis near Meknes.
 
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 olubilis is the best studied and excavated archaeological site in Morocco . It dates back to Neolithic and Phoenician times and, like the nearby cities of Fez and Meknes , sits on a rich agricultural region. The town was a major olive oil producer and the pressing techniques used then are still used today in a few local villages. By the end of AD 2, Emperor Marcus Aurelius decided to construct 2.5 km of walls around city, pierced by 8 gates and guarded by 40 towers. Only the Tangier gate remains today. Decumanus Maximus avenue leads to this gate.
The Basilica was a court house. The Triumphal Arch of Caracalla was raised in AD 217 (the year of Caracalla’s death). It seems to have a purely ceremonial because it leads nowhere. Built from local stone, it was originally capped with a bronze six-horse chariot and nymphs that cascaded water into marble bowls below. The Capitoline Temple that rises against the background of Moulay Idiss Zerhoun, the holy village where Idriss I is buried, was dedicated to Jupiter, Juno and Minerva. The houses of Dionysus, Ephebos, Columns, Labors of Hercules, the bronze dog (now in Rabat), Nerids, and Venus are all worth a visit.
Perhaps under constant pressure from the Berbers, by AD 300, the Romans withdrew from the city. When the Arabs arrived, they found the place ruled by a council of Christian tribal (Baquates) chiefs. By the 11th century the town was deserted. In the 18th century, it was reduced to ruins by Moulay Ismail’s architects and the Lisbon Earthquake of 1755.
It was in Volubilis (renamed Walili by recently converted Muslims) that Idriss, a descendant of Ali by way of his son Hassan, was proclaimed by the Awraba Berbers imam in 789. He laid the foundations of Fez before a Middle Eastern caliph had him poisoned. His Berber wife, Kenza, was pregnant with his son, Idriss II.
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