Thamusida Ruins

Thamusida stands on the left bank of the Sebou about fifteen kilometres upstream from Kenitra, at the limit of navigation for river craft, and it was both a town and a garrison - the Roman fort here, a rectangular camp with the standard plan, held an auxiliary unit on the frontier of Mauretania Tingitana. Around it are baths, houses, a temple and a substantial industrial quarter. The site has been worked in recent decades by an Italian-Moroccan mission using geophysical survey as well as excavation, which mapped the buried plan of the whole settlement without digging all of it - one of the more up-to-date archaeological projects in Morocco. On the ground you see the fort walls, bath structures and foundations in flat riverside country, unfenced, with cattle grazing among them. There is no signage, no staff and no facility, and the site is quietly one of the best Roman survivals in the country.

What you actually see

• A frontier garrison - a rectangular auxiliary fort at the head of river navigation.
• Baths and an industrial quarter - the town's structures around the camp.
• A surveyed plan - the whole buried settlement mapped geophysically without digging.
• Cattle among the walls - unfenced riverside ground with no visitors.

When to go

Spring and autumn. An hour. Avoid winter, when the ground floods.

Honest expectations

There is no staff, signage or facility of any kind. The track in is rough and floods in winter. Remains are foundations and low walls needing background to read. Mosquitoes near the river are severe in warm weather.

Nearby

Kenitra is downstream; Banasa is upriver in the Gharb.