Monday, January 23, 2012

Volubilis - Morocco

The last post of the day shows a new Unesco site from Morocco. The card was sent by Agata "ddonkey" from Croatia.
The Archaeological Site of Volubilis was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1997.

Maroc Infini

Volubilis is an archaeological site in Morocco situated near Meknes between Fez and Rabat. It features the best preserved Roman ruins in this part of northern Africa.

In antiquity, Volubilis was an important Roman town situated near the westernmost border of Roman conquests. It was built on the site of a previous Carthaginian settlement from (at the latest) the third century BC.
Volubilis was the administrative center of the province in Roman Africa called Mauretania Tingitana.
Volubilis contains essentially Roman vestiges of a fortified municipium built on a commanding site at the foot of the Jebel Zerhoun. Covering an area of 42 hectares, it is of outstanding importance demonstrating urban development and Romanisation at the frontiers of the Roman Empire and the graphic illustration of the interface between the Roman and indigenous cultures. Because of its isolation and the fact that it had not been occupied for nearly a thousand years, it presents an important level of authenticity. The archaeological vestiges of this site bear witness to several civilizations.
The site has produced a substantial amount of artistic material, including mosaics, marble and bronze statuary, and hundreds of inscriptions. This documentation and that which remains to be discovered
, is representative of a creative spirit of the human beings who lived there over the ages. - in: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/836

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