Volubilis & Meknes: Morocco's Roman Ruins and Imperial City
An hour from Fes lie the best Roman ruins in Morocco and a walled imperial capital most visitors skip entirely. Volubilis and Meknes make one of the country's best-value day trips.
An hour from Fes lie the best Roman ruins in Morocco and a walled imperial capital most visitors skip entirely. Volubilis and Meknes make one of the country's best-value day trips.
Morocco’s tourist circuit is so dominated by Marrakech, Fes and the Sahara that two genuinely first-rate sites, both within an hour of Fes, go largely unvisited. Volubilis is the best-preserved Roman city in Morocco and a UNESCO World Heritage site, with mosaics still in place on the floors where they were laid. Meknes is a seventeenth-century imperial capital with monumental gates and the strange, vast infrastructure of a sultan who intended to rule an empire from it. Together they make an excellent day from Fes, usually with the pilgrimage town of Moulay Idriss added in.
Volubilis began as a Mauretanian settlement and became a substantial Roman provincial city, prosperous on olive oil, from roughly the first century CE. Rome withdrew in the late third century but the city was inhabited for centuries afterwards. It was largely intact until the Lisbon earthquake of 1755 and later stone-robbing for Meknes; what stands today was excavated from the early twentieth century onward.
Allow 1.5 to 2 hours. There is a small modern visitor centre with a museum, and official guides at the entrance who are inexpensive and genuinely useful — the site has limited signage and the mosaics’ subjects are not obvious. There is almost no shade: bring a hat, sunscreen and water, and avoid the middle of a summer day. Good walking shoes; the ground is uneven stone and gravel. Spring is the best season, when the surrounding fields are green and full of wildflowers.
Five kilometres from Volubilis, a white town spills across two hills around the tomb of Moulay Idriss I, great-grandson of the Prophet and founder of Morocco’s first Arab dynasty in 788. It is one of the holiest sites in the country and, until relatively recently, closed to non-Muslims overnight.
You cannot enter the mausoleum itself, but the town is worth 45 minutes: steep whitewashed lanes, a distinctive cylindrical minaret (the only one in Morocco), and viewpoints at the top of each hill looking across the rooftops and out to Volubilis. Dress conservatively here — more so than anywhere else on this route.
Meknes was made the imperial capital by Sultan Moulay Ismail, who ruled from 1672 to 1727 and built on a scale intended to rival Versailles. Much of it was unfinished at his death and some has decayed, which gives the city an unusual atmosphere: monumental, half-empty, and much calmer than Fes an hour away.
Allow two to three hours in Meknes. It is also a good lunch stop.
Driving distances are short: Fes to Volubilis is about 70 km (an hour), Volubilis to Meknes about 33 km, Meknes back to Fes about 60 km.
Yes, and it is the best-value day trip in northern Morocco. It also breaks up a Fes stay usefully: after a day in the medina, a day of open countryside, Roman mosaics and an uncrowded imperial city is a genuine change of pace. Volubilis in particular is a site that people arrive at with low expectations and leave impressed by.
Meknes and Volubilis also sit naturally on the route between Fes and Rabat or Casablanca, so if you are travelling in that direction you can see both without a dedicated day. Our 5-day northern Morocco tour from Casablanca to Fes includes them on the way through.
We run this as a private day from Fes with a licensed guide, or build it into a longer northern route. Tell us how many days you have in Fes and we will fit it in, or see our multi-day Morocco tours.
Yes. It is the best-preserved Roman city in Morocco and a UNESCO World Heritage site, and its floor mosaics are still in place in the houses they were made for rather than removed to a museum. Most visitors arrive with low expectations and leave impressed.
About 70 km, roughly an hour by road. Volubilis to Meknes is a further 33 km, and Meknes back to Fes about 60 km, which is why the three combine easily into one day.
Non-Muslims cannot enter the mausoleum itself, but the town of Moulay Idriss Zerhoun is open and worth about 45 minutes for its steep white lanes, its unique cylindrical minaret and the viewpoints over Volubilis. Dress conservatively.
Heri es-Souani, the royal granaries and stables built by Moulay Ismail: vast vaulted halls with walls thick enough to regulate temperature, alongside the ruins of stabling for thousands of horses. Bab Mansour, the great gate onto Place El Hedim, is the other highlight.
March to May, when the surrounding fields are green and full of wildflowers, or September to November. Visit in the morning in any season, because the site has almost no shade and is punishing in the middle of a summer day.
