Kaylee Tindle is a student at University of Missouri, Kansas City and is an ISA Featured Blogger. She is studying abroad with ISA in Meknes, Morocco.
In Morocco there is a place of ancient wonder. You can touch, feel, and see back in time.
For someone like me, this experience meant everything. To be able to see my first Roman ruins and the floors which still hold the labors of Hercules in color filled my heart with joy. Here, in the City of Volubilis, you can turn back time. You can imagine yourself walking the streets as the people did some 5000 years ago. You can run your hands on the stones and columns and still feel the carvings by the people who worked so hard to make their city beautiful without knowing their art would last, quite literally, forever. There are still altars for the goddesses of Diane and Venus. You can walk through an area that contained one of the first Pagan churches. The altar for animal sacrifices to Zeus is still intact and in the same place, directly below the stairs of what seemed to be the old city hall. I walked up the steps of the old city hall, which still stood tall over the city, and I gazed over and allowed my mind to see the beauty of what Volubilis once was and, to me, still is. I found myself away from the tour guide and fellow students as I ran around the Roman ruins like a child in a candy store.
There is a power in being able to touch something so old and ancient and, yet, still so filled with life. So much knowledge can be obtained from just one place. It’s the type of “magic” some only hope to feel in their life. This is why I am so thankful for this experience. I become emotional when I saw that most of the flooring still contained the original colors. I felt a tear run down my cheek. How fascinating! The city of Volubilis was built in the 3rd century BC, and abandoned in the 11th century AD. How wonderful it is to able to say, “I was there”.
Near the end of our time visiting Volubilis, I still managed to find myself on the “other side of town” so to speak. Before heading back I decided to rest in the shade of what used to be considered the gate to exit the city. Breathing in and out, I took in the air and the nature around me. I still felt so enlightened and thankful for the knowledge obtained here. It was very hot on this day and I brushed back my hair behind my right ear. While doing so, I felt something fall onto my knuckles. It was a stone piece from the wall I was leaning against! I started to become emotional once again and took it as a sign.
I’ll be keeping this stone forever, as I’m sure it will last some other thousands of years! And I will keep it in this heart shaped box back home I’ve been waiting to use. So when people ask me, “what’s inside the box?”, I guess I will just have to start with..
“Let me tell you a story of, Volubilis.”
Hello there! So much glad that you had such an amazing experience! In fact, I really love to touch ancient things. It is always good to wonder how life was 5000 years back in time, and It’s a “magical” place as you mentioned earlier because you feel like it speaks to you. that’s an amazing journey that so many people experience.