VOLUBILIS
VOLUBILIS (
Οὐολουβιλίς,
Ptol. 4.1.14), a town of Mauretania Tingitana, seated on the river Subur, and on the road from Tocolosida to Tingis, from the former of which places it was only 4 miles distant. (
Itin. Ant. p. 23.)
It lay 35 miles SE. from Banasa, and the same distance from the coast. (
Plin. Nat. 5.1. s. 1; Mela, 3.10.)
It was a Roman colony (
Itin. Ant. l.c.) and a place of some importance. Ptolemy calls the inhabitants of the surrounding district, Volubiliani (
Οὐολουβιλιανοί, 4.1.10).
In the time of Leo Africanus (p. 279, ed. Lorsbach) it was a deserted town between
Fez and
Mequinez, bearing the name of
Valili or
Gualili, the walls of which were 6 Italian miles in circumference.
That position is now occupied by the town of
Zanitat-Mula-Driss, on mount
Zarhon. At some distance to the NW. are the splendid ruins of
Kassr Faraun (Pharaoh's castle), with Roman inscriptions; but to what ancient city they belong is unknown. (Cf. Mannert, x. pt. ii. p. 486; Graberg di Hemsö, p. 28; Wimmer,
Gemälde von Afrika, i. p. 439.)
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T.H.D]
