Qualla: Chellah

Chellah: Introduction

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Rob Dozier, CC BY 2.0. A single tombstone in the Chellah tells the story of two thousand years in a slab of marble. One side bears a Roman inscription mentioning Aulus Caecina Tacitus, a governor of Hispania Baetica from the 3rd century AD. The other side carries the funerary inscription of a Marinid sultan, carved centuries later after the stone traveled from Roman Spain to an Umayyad fountain in Cordoba, then across the Strait of Gibraltar to this walled necropolis on the outskirts of Rabat. Every surface here has been written on, built over, and repurposed.

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Image: Rob Dozier | CC BY 2.0

Chellah: Sala Colonia and the Roman Footprint

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Sabrine S. Hakam, CC BY-SA 3.0. Before the mausoleums, before Islam arrived in North Africa, this was Sala Colonia -- a Roman city whose monumental district covered about 1.2 hectares around a central forum. Phoenician traders had established a settlement here even earlier, drawn by the mouth of the Bou Regreg ...

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Image: Sabrine S. Hakam | CC BY-SA 3.0

Chellah: The Sultan's Garden of the Dead

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit R Prazeres, CC BY-SA 4.0. In the 13th century, the Marinid sultans transformed this abandoned Roman site into a royal necropolis. Sultan Abu al-Hasan built a religious complex here around 1339, complete with a mosque, a madrasa, and elaborate mausoleums. A fragment of a kiswah -- the sacred cloth that cov...

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Image: R Prazeres | CC BY-SA 4.0

Chellah: Treasure Hunters and Storks

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Annasonnescheint, CC BY-SA 3.0. Abu al-Hasan was the last sultan buried at Chellah. After his death, the necropolis began a long, slow decline marked by looting and neglect. The Alawi sultans stationed soldiers to guard against treasure hunters, but in the late 18th century an Arab tribe, the Sabbah, seized the...

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Image: Annasonnescheint | CC BY-SA 3.0

Chellah: Where Ancient Meets Contemporary

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Véronique Dauge, CC BY-SA 3.0 igo. Today Chellah is both an archaeological park and a living cultural venue. The walled enclosure, part of Rabat's UNESCO World Heritage designation since 2012, contains shrines that still function alongside excavated ruins. The tomb of Sidi Yahya ibn Yunus, a mystic believed to hav...

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Image: Véronique Dauge | CC BY-SA 3.0 igo