I took a photo of this map that showed the areas that Rome controlled at the time that Volubilis was constructed. It was pretty impressive to see.
What has been excavated are the remnants of a large home...
Complete with a sauna room...
And indoor toilet. Originally, there was a marble slab with holes cut out in it that sat on top of the lowest wall in the center of the photo. There were mutliple holes so that multiple people could use the facilities at the same time. Yeah, that’s not awkward. Apparently the family that pottied together, stayed together. Another interesting fact is that in the wintertime, that marble slab would get mighty cold so they would make their slaves go in and sit on the cold marble to warm it up so it would be more comfortable for the family’s use. Human bun warmers!
The home had several levels and many beautiful mosaics in the floors and included a fish pond.
We also saw the remnants of an ancient olive oil press. This is where they would do the first crush.
Then the second crush would be made in this area.
We then saw the remnants of the temple to Jupiter and the sacrificial altar in front of it - for animal sacrifices, not people, thank goodness!
Just beyond the left end of the sacrificial altar stands the remnants of a Christian bascillica.
Our guide pointed out to us how Constantine just merged Christianity with the pagan religions of the day and didn’t bother to tear down the pagan temples. He just rolled everything into one. Yep. Ask the Moroccans. They’ll tell ya all about it.
There were two more mosaics that I thought were interesting. This one actually depicts a drinking game. The object of the game was to get as wasted as possible, then sit on a horse backwards and see who could ride the longest without falling off. Yeah, I’ll be that was some big fun.
The second mosaic is a little hard to see, but it depicts a man with a fishing pole and some fish. Anyone care to guess what this is representative of?
This was a mosaic depicting Christianity because back in those days, the Christians were known here as “fishers of men.” Pretty cool.
This last mosaic was actually removed from its original site and was put up inside the little museum at Volubilis. I took a close-up shot of the face just so that you could see the work involved in creating these mosaics. Ashley, this is for you.
We finally ended our visit to Volubilis and headed to Fez after lunch. After a brief rest, our entire tour group went to dinner in a private home. The wife of the house and three helpers prepared the entire meal for all 38 of us, plus our guide. I can’t even imagine the work that must have taken. It was really fun to be treated to some truly authentic, homemade Moroccan food.
First up was a spicy vegetable soup. We all loved this.
Unlike Westerners who usually eat bread with their soup, Moroccans eat little cookies and dates with their soup. Clearly, Moroccans have the “life is uncertain, eat dessert first” philosophy down pat.
Then we were served little meat pies. The square ones were beef, the ones with powdered sugar on them were chicken, the the plain round ones were fish. Of course I couldn’t try them, but it seems like the jury is out on whether the rest of my peeps liked them.
Next was a vegetable tagine, which I was able to eat and really liked. A tagine is like a stew and is slow cooked in a conical pot also called a tagine.
Most of us really liked it and it was so pretty!
We were served fruit for dessert, and this was presented beautifully, too. Moroccans also seem to have the “you eat first with your eyes” idea down to a science. Absolutely everything that we have been served in this country has been beautifully presented and pretty tasty, too.
After dinner it was back to our hotel to get a good night’s sleep so we would be ready for our next Moroccan adventure, a visit to the Fez medina.
No comments:
Post a Comment