Moroccan archaeologists had on Friday, November 3, announced that they had discovered a Roman-era second-century site in Rabat comprising of a port district, a bath and a cemetery dating back to the second century.
The archaeological site, the third largest find in Morocco, will provide awareness into the lives of Roman settlers and romanised Moroccans or Mauro-Romans in the second century era, according to the head archaeologist, Abdelaziz El Khayari at a news conference on the site.
Khayari had said that the Roman-era bath measures over 2000 square meters (21,527 square feet) resembling its imperial counterparts in Rome.
The archaeologists had also discovered a second century headless statue of a Roman deity. This is not an uncommon phenomenon as research have revealed that when ancient Moroccans adopted Christianity around the fifth century it was a common practice to decapitate statutes symbolising Roman gods.
Khayari had also revealed that the excavations which began in March, are still ongoing to discover the port and other parts of what is considered to be one of the biggest Roman towns in the country, a long way from the Bouregreg river and the Atlantic coast.
The newly uncovered monuments are an addition of a nearby Roman-era site and tourist attraction, Chellah, where the Muslim Marinide dynasty erected a fortified necropolis in the thirteenth century.
