Museum of History and Civilizations

The museum was founded in 1932 and reorganised in the 2010s, and it holds the material that most matters for understanding the country's early history in one building. The bronzes are the reason people come: the Volubilis pieces, including the head of Juba II, the bust of Cato the Younger, the dog and the ephebe crowned with ivy, are among the finest Roman-period bronzes found anywhere in North Africa and were mostly recovered in the excavations of the 1910s and 1940s. Alongside them are Punic and Mauretanian material, marble sculpture, mosaics and inscriptions from Volubilis, Banasa, Lixus and Sala. The prehistory section covers the finds that placed early humans in Morocco, including material connected to Jebel Irhoud, where fossils dated to around three hundred thousand years ago pushed back the earliest known Homo sapiens.

History

The building was put up in the 1920s for the antiquities service, and in 1930 it was decided to make it a national archaeological museum, bringing in finds from the excavations at Volubilis and Chellah begun in 1915; it took its final form by 1957. After a year of renovation costing 5.5 million dirhams it reopened under its present name on 12 April 2017 (Wikipedia, Museum of History and Civilizations).

What's there

• The Volubilis bronzes - Juba II, Cato, the dog and the ephebe, among the best in North Africa.
• Roman Morocco assembled - material from Volubilis, Banasa, Lixus and Sala in one place.
• Punic and Mauretanian material - the layers before Rome annexed the region.
• Deep prehistory - the finds behind Morocco's claim to the earliest known Homo sapiens.

When to go

October to April. Two hours.

What to expect

Labelling is in Arabic and French with variable English. Sections have closed for reorganisation at times. It is small compared with major national museums. Entry is charged.

Nearby

The Chellah is south-east; the Hassan Tower is north-east.

Key facts