Breadbasket of the Ancient World

We drove a couple of hours from Casablanca southeast to Volubilus, one of the Roman Empire's largest provincial cities.

It wasn't the Morocco I pictured at all.  Much more fertile.

Nearly 20,000 people lived here late in the second century.  They shipped grain and olive oil back to Rome, and bred animals for gladiatorial combat.

Our guide never mentioned that Moulay Idriss, a direct descendant of Muhammad, also established an Islamic Moroccan dynasty here half a century later with the help of some fierce Berbers.

Lead in the water pipes may have killed off the rich Roman farmers who erected several mansions, but their mosaics endured, surviving earthquakes.  This panel is part of a floor depicting the Twelve Labors of Hercules.

Here, he's just captured Cerberus, the multi-headed dog who guarded the gates to the underworld.

These swastikas, a common Roman design motif representing perpetual motion, pre-date Nazi appropriation by nearly two millennia.

The vegetation (and tourists) provided colorful accents.

 

A small museum housed artifacts excavated by the French, including another Medusa with quite a few more tendrils.