Banasa Ruins

Banasa was founded as a Roman colony under Augustus on the Sebou river in the Gharb, the flat and fertile plain north-east of Rabat, and it was a working provincial town rather than a showpiece - grain country, with the river as its route to the sea. What is exposed is a forum with its surrounding portico, a basilica, a capitol, two bath complexes, streets, houses with mosaic floors, and pottery kilns; the Tabula Banasitana, a bronze tablet recording a grant of Roman citizenship to a local family, was found here and is an important document for how the empire handled provincial elites. The site is in open fields with a fence, sometimes a guardian and sometimes not, no signage of consequence, and storks nesting on the columns. It receives almost no visitors, which is the general condition of Roman Morocco outside Volubilis.

What to look for

• A working colonial town - forum, basilica, capitol, baths and streets in grain country.
• Mosaic floors - in houses along the excavated streets, exposed to the weather.
• The citizenship tablet's site - where the Tabula Banasitana was found.
• Farmland and storks - an unvisited site with birds nesting on the columns.

When to go

Spring and autumn. An hour. The Gharb is muddy in winter and hot in summer.

Practical notes

Staffing is irregular and there is no interpretation. Access is by track through farmland, impassable after rain. Mosaics are uncovered and deteriorating. It is remote from the main routes and needs a car.

Nearby

Thamusida is west near Kenitra; Volubilis is south-east.