During and after the period of French rule over Morocco, about half of the site was excavated, revealing many fine mosaics, and some of the more prominent public buildings and high-status houses were restored or reconstructed.

[9] Built on a shallow slope below the Zerhoun mountain, Volubilis stands on a ridge above the valley of Khoumane (Khuman) where it is met by a small tributary stream called the Fertassa.

[11] By the third century BC, the Carthaginians had a presence there, as evidenced by the remains of a temple to the Punic god Baal and finds of pottery and stones inscribed in the Phoenician language.

[12] After Claudius annexed Mauretania in 44 AD, the city grew substantially due to its wealth and prosperity, derived from the fertile lands of the province which produced valuable export commodities such as grain, olive oil and wild animals for gladiatorial spectacles.

[20] The city remained loyal to Rome despite a revolt in 40–44 AD led by one of Ptolemy's freedmen, Aedemon, and its inhabitants were rewarded with grants of citizenship and a ten-year exemption from taxes.

[17] The city was raised to the status of a municipium and its system of governance was overhauled, with the Punic-style suffetes replaced by annually elected duumvirs, or pairs of magistrates.

[17] Sidi Said was the base for the Cohors IV Gallorum equitata, an auxiliary cavalry unit from Gaul, while Aïn Schkor housed Hispanic and Belgic cohorts.

[21] Rising tensions in the region near the end of the 2nd century led the emperor Marcus Aurelius to order the construction of a 2.5 km (1.6 mi) circuit of walls with eight gates and 40 towers.

[22] Rome's control over the city ended following the chaos of the Crisis of the Third Century, when the empire nearly disintegrated as a series of generals seized and lost power through civil wars, palace coups and assassinations.

[17] Occupation of the city continued, however, as fine mosaics such as that of a chariot race conducted by animals in the House of Venus can not have been created earlier than the fourth century.

[25][failed verification] By the time the Arabs had arrived in 708,[16][better source needed] the city's name was changed to Oualila or Walīlī, and it was inhabited by the Awraba, a Berber tribe that originated in Libya.

The name of the city was forgotten and it was termed Ksar Faraoun, or the "Pharaoh's Castle", by the local people, alluding to a legend that the ancient Egyptians had built it.

A bust lay a little way off, very much defaced, and was the only thing to be found that represented life, except the shape of a foot seen under the lower part of a garment, in the niche on the other side of the arch.

I attempted to take a view of these immense ruins, which have furnished marble for the imperial palaces at Mequinas and Tafilelt; but I was obliged to desist, seeing some persons of the sanctuary following the cavalcade.

[32]Walter Burton Harris, a writer for The Times, visited Volubilis during his travels in Morocco between 1887 and 1889, after the site had been identified by French archaeologists but before any serious excavations or restorations had begun.

By the late 19th century French archaeologists were undertaking an intensive effort to uncover northwest Africa's pre-Islamic past through excavations and restorations of archaeological sites.

As the historian Gwendolyn Wright puts it, "The Islamic sense of history and architecture found the concept of setting off monuments entirely foreign", which "gave the French proof of the conviction that only they could fully appreciate the Moroccan past and its beauty."

Emile Pauty of the Institut des Hautes Études Marocaines criticised the Muslims for taking the view that "the passage of time is nothing" and charged them with "let[ting] their monuments fall into ruin with as much indifference as they once showed ardour in building them.

The American writer Edith Wharton visited in 1920 and highlighted what she saw as the contrast between "two dominations look[ing] at each other across the valley", the ruins of Volubilis and "the conical white town of Moulay Idriss, the Sacred City of Morocco".

[38] Fortunately for Morocco, "the political stability which France is helping them to acquire will at last give their higher qualities time for fruition"[39]—very much the theme that the French colonial authorities wanted to get across.

[44] These restorations have not been without controversy; a review carried out for UNESCO in 1997 reported that "some of the reconstructions, such as those on the triumphal arch, the capitolium, and the oil-pressing workshop, are radical and at the limit of currently accepted practice.

"[44] From 2000 excavations carried out by University College London and the Moroccan Institut National des Sciences de l'Archéologie et du Patrimoine under the direction of Elizabeth Fentress, Gaetano Palumbo and Hassan Limane revealed what should probably be interpreted as the headquarters of Idris I just below the walls of the Roman town to the west of the ancient city centre.

It was unanimously agreed that Volubilis was a good candidate for the list and in 1997 ICOMOS recommended that it be inscribed as "an exceptionally well preserved example of a large Roman colonial town on the fringes of the Empire",[46] which UNESCO accepted.

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.

[50] 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.

[48] 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.

Small temples and public offices also lined the 1,300 m2 (14,000 sq ft) forum,[55] which would have been full of statues of emperors and local dignitaries, of which only the pedestals now remain.

SEBASTENO PROCVRATORE AVGVSTI DEVOTISSIMO NVMINI EIVS A SOLO FACIENDVM CVRAVITor, in translation: For the emperor Caesar, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus [Caracalla], the pious, fortunate Augustus, greatest victor in Parthia, greatest victor in Britain, greatest victor in Germany, Pontifex Maximus, holding tribunician power for the twentieth time, Emperor for the fourth time, Consul for the fourth time, Father of the Country, Proconsul, and for Julia Augusta [Julia Domna], the pious, fortunate mother of the camp and the Senate and the country, because of his exceptional and new kindness towards all, which is greater than that of the principes that came before, the Republic of the Volubilitans took care to have this arch made from the ground up, including a chariot drawn by six horses and all the ornaments, with Marcus Aurelius Sebastenus, procurator, who is most deeply devoted to the divinity of Augustus, initiating and dedicating it.The houses found at Volubilis range from richly decorated mansions to simple two-room mud-brick structures used by the city's poorer inhabitants.

They have been named by archaeologists after their principal mosaics (or other finds): The same building was also the site of the discovery in 1918 of a bronze bust of outstanding quality depicting Cato the Younger.

To the south of this courtyard was one evidently designed for reception, with long narrow rooms to the east and west, one of which was painted red, with a low bench or divan at one end.