History

The Chellah sits on the banks of the Bou Regreg (now around 2km from the Atlantic) and was built by the Romans in around 40 AD (it was the Roman town – Sala Colonia, or Sala), although being a natural port it may have previously been a site occupied by the Phoenicians or Carthaginians as early as the 3^rdcentury BC.

It was one of the two main Roman naval ports on the Atlantic (the other being Mogador) and lay on one of the two Roman roads in Morocco that led down from near modern Tangier (the other heading towards Fez and Volubilis). It contained a principal Roman way (the Decumanus Maximus), a temple (to Jupiter), a forum and a triumphal arch.

The Romans lost control of the town in around 250 AD and it was abandoned in 1154 when the inhabitants moved to Salé (on the Atlantic, across the river from modern Rabat city). From then the Almohad dynasty (which ruled until the early 13^th century) used it as a cemetery (necropolis) and in the 14^th century the Marinid dynasty added the defensive wall and towers (that we now see at around 6m high – a defence against Spanish attack), a mosque, a medersa (Islamic theological school), further tombs, the main gate and other monuments