Volubilis - City Layout and Infrastructure

City Layout and Infrastructure

Prior to the Roman occupation, Volubilis covered an area of about 12 hectares (30 acres), built on a V-shaped ridge between the Fertassa and Khoumane wadis on a roughly north-south axis. It was developed on a fairly regular pattern typical of Phoenician/Carthaginian settlements and was enclosed by a set of walls. Under the Romans, the city was expanded considerably on a northeast-southwest axis, increasing in size to about 42 hectares (100 acres). Most of the city's public buildings were constructed in the older part of the city. The grand houses for which Volubilis is famous are in the newer part, behind the Decumanus Maximus (main street), which bisected the Roman-era part of the city. The decumanus was paved, had sidewalks and was lined with arcaded porticoes on either sides, behind which were dozens of shops. The Arch of Caracalla marks the point at which the old and new cities merge. After the aqueduct fell into disrepair with the end of the Roman occupation, a new residential area was constructed to the west near the Wadi Khoumane.

The city was supplied with water by an aqueduct that ran from a spring in the hills behind the city. The aqueduct may have been constructed around 60–80 AD and was subsequently reconstructed on several occasions. An elaborate network of channels fed houses and the public baths from the municipal supply and a series of drains carried sewage and waste away to the river to be flushed. The aqueduct ran under the Decumanus Secundus, a street that ran parallel with the Decumanus Maximus, and terminated at a large fountain in the city centre near the Arch of Caracalla.

Most of the original pre-Roman city wall was built over or destroyed, but a 77 m stretch of the original wall, which was made of mud bricks on a stone foundation, can still be seen near the tumulus. The Roman city walls stretch for 2.6 kilometres (1.6 mi) and average 1.6 metres (5.2 ft) thick. Built of rubble masonry and ashlar, they are mostly still extant. The full circuit of walls had 34 towers, spaced at intervals of one about every 50 metres (160 ft), and six main gates which were flanked by towers. Part of the eastern wall has been reconstructed to a height of 1.5 metres (4.9 ft). The Tingis Gate, also reconstructed, marks the northern-eastern entrance to Volubilis. It was constructed in 168/169 AD – the date is known due to the discovery of a coin of that year that was deliberately embedded in the gate's stonework by its builders.

An early medieval wall stands to the west of the Arch of Caracalla; it was built after the end of the Roman occupation, apparently some time in the 5th or 6th centuries, to protect the eastern side of the city's new residential area. It was oriented in a north-south direction and was constructed using stone looted from ruined buildings elsewhere in the abandoned areas of the city.