Roman/Berber Excavation Site and Meknes

So it has been a little more than a week since my first entry so it might be a tad long again. Not quite as much because it is mostly just going to be about my trip two weekends ago (oops, don't worry the one for last weekend should but up super soon).  First though, a note on my hotel room. When we first got to the hotel we were amazed because its really nice a big, and very nicely decorated. Now, one of our two toilets just doesn't work at all, in order to turn off the light in that same bathroom we have to switch off the breaker, and the light bulb in my room is burnt out.  In one of the other rooms, the wires burnt completely through and the whole light fixture crashed to the floor. It worries me a little bit staying in these rooms, but they are moving us on Tuesday and Wednesday in more apartment style housing. Hopefully it will last a bit longer. So moving on to the weekend.

The first place we went to visit was an old Berber town that had been "turned" Roman. This is very vaguely turned because although they tried to look and act Roman, they messed up in many many things. The first house we visited was called the House of Venus. It was a house of one of the richer and more respected at least in the eyes of the Romans. It was called the House of Venus for the tiling in one of the rooms that is shown to the right.  We could see the remain of the layout of the house with the garden and fountain in the middle with smaller rooms around the outside of the house. 

This next picture here is showing the gates into this Roman/Berber city. We were asked what they were used for. Usually gates would be for protection but come on, we are in the middle of the desert here. Who wants to take over desert? So instead the primary use of these gates were to ensure that taxes on products were paid before going into the city. Since Volubilis was chosen by the Roman because of it was the political and economical center in the area, this was one of the sources of money from the city for the empire.

Guess what this picture is? Well I can guarantee you probably won't figure it out. When we moved on to another example of a house we were shown a "fancy" kitchen. This is actually where they would keep fish alive before they killed them for food. I only thought when I heard this, 'Boy is that shallow for fish.' I was also wondering where they got the fish from. Is there a river or other body of water nearby?

 The mighty triumphal arch!! To bad it was never going to be used. It was built for if the Emperor ever visited the city but a) he never did, and b) if he had, the army wouldn't have been able to march through it triumphantly like they are supposed to. There wasn't enough room on either side of it to allow that. Just one example of how uninformed the Berbers actually were of Roman ideas. There was really only one family or so that was born Roman in this city which owned the house shown below. Their house was made with more expensive and sturdy materials than the rest of the city.

This part of the house is actually the bedroom section of the house. We were told the story about how if there were "naughty girls" they would get walled up in their bedroom to preserve the honor of the family. They couldn't physically kill her themselves because that would also disgrace the family so they left her to die by 'her own fault.'

Another aspect of women learned from this trip is that the Romans actually helped spread the use of the veil because the Berber people started to complain that Roman soldiers were being disrespectful to their daughters so to fight this the Empire suggested they veil them and it was to warn the soldiers that they were not to bother these girls.
 

While Romans did have their religion that was focused around Mars, they did allow the Berbers to practice their own family religions inside their home. The only exception to this was that the Berber families must still provide an offering for sacrifice every year on the alter shown the the left. The Roman were fine with them having their own local gods and goddesses as long as the people were also helping to contribute to the entire empire through the Roman's religion. If the Berbers did not offer a sacrifice then they would be discriminated against and would not be not become apply to become one of the upper-class that was allowed to run for office and partake in committees.

So one of the supposedly "nice" places we visited in these ruins was the bathhouse. This picture shows the toilet room. There are stone benches around the side and the spots on the ground were where people could step without slipping. Gross, but it gets worse. If you were doing your duty and another person came in then it was considered rude for them not to be able to sit next to you. To them the bathroom was just another place to have daily conversation and discuss politics or business.  The rest of the bathhouse was designed so that people could move from the hot room to the warm room to the cold room, then an oiling down (because bathing dries you out and it is already a dry landscape), all the while talking with your buddies. There was also a little garden and dining area inside the bath house. So apparently they made quite a day of bath day. The closest thing I can think of to all this is gossiping in the dorm bathroom while washing up for bed or everyone singing together while showering. I miss those days. I've never seen anything like it outside a dorm though haha.

This next picture is of the one of the entryways into a palace in Meknes. It is supposed to be a simple palace, but also one that basically spreads throughout the entire city. A little strange I think but I really liked this entrance room with the lantern and the fountain to wash yourself with before you entered the mosque area. I didn't get to see almost anything else of the rest of the palace but I thought this room was plenty beautiful.  Last but not least, the camels below, well I might have kinda snuck the picture in because the guy standing next to them wanted us to pay to have pictures with them. Well I did not want a picture with them but I wanted one of them so I super-spied it and casually held my phone at just the right angle and happened to touch the screen on my phone...and look I have camels on my camera for some strange reason! Oops :)