Morocco's holiest city — a hillside mausoleum town above the Roman ruins of Volubilis
Moulay Idriss is Morocco's most sacred city — the hilltop town built around the mausoleum of Moulay Idriss I, the founder of the Idrisid dynasty (Morocco's first Muslim ruling house, direct descendant of the Prophet Muhammad) who brought Islam to the Maghreb in the 8th century. The town spreads across two hills above the Zerhoun valley, 5km from the Roman ruins of Volubilis, and was closed to non-Muslims overnight until 2005. Today it receives a fraction of the tourists of nearby Meknès or Fès, but its Friday moussem (pilgrimage festival) each summer still draws hundreds of thousands of Moroc…
Moulay Idriss I arrived in Morocco in 789 CE after fleeing the Abbasid Caliphate (his Alid lineage made him a political threat), established the Idrisid dynasty, and died here in 791 — the mausoleum built over his tomb became the spiritual centre of Moroccan Islam. The town bears his name and was considered so sacred that for centuries non-Muslims were forbidden to enter at all, and even today non-Muslims may not enter the mausoleum precincts. The nearby Roman city of Volubilis (2nd–3rd century CE) is a UNESCO World Heritage Site — it was a major city of Roman Mauritania, producing olive oil…