Chellah, () or
Sala Colonia is a
necropolis and complex of ancient Roman
Mauretania TingitanaJustin McGuinness,
Footprint Morocco, 2003, 560 pages, ISBN 190347163X and
medievalKen Bernstein,
Morocco, 2001, Hunter Publishing, Inc, 64 pages ISBN 2884520031
ruins at
Rabat,
Morocco. It is the most ancient human settlement on the
mouth of the
Bou Regreg River.
History
The
Phoenicians and the
Carthaginians, who founded several colonies in Morocco, probably inhabited the banks of the Bou Regreg. Chellah is the site of the ruins of the
Roman town known as
Sala Colonia, referred to as Sala by
Ptolemy. Excavations show an important port city with ruined Roman
architectural elements including a
decumanus maximus or principal Roman way, a
forum and a triumphal
arch.
One of the two main
Roman roads in Morocco reached the Atlantic through
Iulia Constantia Zilil (Asilah),
Lixus (Larache) and Sala Colonia. Another may have been built toward south, from Sala Colonia to modern
Casablanca, then called
Anfa. The Romans had two main naval ouposts on the Atlantic: Sala near modern Rabat and
Mogador in north of
Agadir.
Roman expeditions sailed from there to find the
Canary islands.
The site was abandoned in 1154 in favour of nearby
Salé. The
Almohad dynasty used the
ghost town as a
necropolis. In the mid-14th century, a
Merinid sultan,
Abu l-Hasan, built monuments and the main gate, dated to 1339. These later Merinid additions included a
mosque,...
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