Saturday, February 10.  Cloudy day with occasional sprinkles.  After a 90 minute drive we arrived at Volubilis, an ancient Roman city.  The ruins have been partially unearthed.  There is very nice museum on the site and we had a very knowledgeable guide.  By knowledgeable, I mean he knew a lot about general Roman history.  He was able to give a perspective of the Empire and how Volubilis fit into it.

After lunch (meat on a stick, rice and french fries), we visited Meknas with it’s triple walled enclosure. There is a historic and huge granary still standing for the 1600’s.  The story is it could contain sufficient food to last 9 years.  “Take that with a grain of Salt”, Ben says.

After returning to Fez I went off on my own for a little while.  Had a sugared donut, bought more peanuts, and got a small plate of candies for the hotel staff.  Found shops that sell chickens that are alive during the shopping but dead during the buying.  I think I could rent a stall, install seats and rent them to tourists to just watch the traffic without being in the traffic.  There is no safe place to just stand.

We leave tomorrow to make a long drive to the fringe of the desert.  We’re not scheduled to actually see anything in particular, but I’ve no doubt that Ben will find something.  Monday our Sahara adventure begins.

At the Entrance.

The Basilica.

The home of the comedian.

Ancient (1600) granary.

Diagonal view.

Motorcycle repair shop.

In the back of the store is a platform with dozens of chickens.