Chellah

Tickets and tours: all the options

Chellah is run by the Moroccan heritage authorities and sells one standard entry ticket, paid at the gate in dirhams. The ticket covers the whole walled enclosure, both the Roman town and the Marinid religious complex. There is no time slot and queues are rare, so buying ahead is a matter of convenience rather than necessity.

Two products are sold online. The first is the plain entry ticket, useful if you want everything arranged before you arrive or are paying by card rather than cash. The second is a guided walk of about an hour to an hour and a half, which adds a guide who explains the site's long sequence, from Phoenician traders to Roman colonists and medieval sultans, and reads the Arabic inscriptions on the gate and tombs. Guides are worthwhile here because the information panels are short and the Roman and Marinid ruins overlap.

Chellah also features on many half-day city tours of Rabat, which combine it with the Hassan Tower, the Mausoleum of Mohammed V and the Kasbah of the Udayas; these usually include transport and a guide but not lunch. For most visitors the sensible plan is the guided walk, or a ticket and a taxi as part of your own day in Rabat.

A short history

Punic pottery shows that traders reached the Bou Regreg estuary by the 3rd century BC, perhaps earlier. Under the Mauretanian kings Juba II and Ptolemy a town with temples grew here, and after Rome annexed the kingdom in AD 40 it became Sala, a port of Mauretania Tingitana with a forum and an arch. It declined from the 5th century and lay in ruins when the Arabs arrived. From 1284 the Marinid sultans used the site as a royal necropolis, and in the 1330s they walled it and built the gate. Earthquakes and looting damaged it later. French excavations in the 20th century exposed the Roman town, and Chellah has been part of the UNESCO-listed Rabat since 2012.

Getting there

Chellah lies just outside the southern edge of Rabat's old city walls, about 2 km from the medina and a short distance from the royal palace area. The simplest way there is a petit taxi, the small blue city taxis, which take about ten minutes from the medina or from Rabat Ville railway station; insist on the meter. On foot, it is a walk of about 25 minutes from the station along wide avenues. Trains link Rabat with Casablanca in about an hour and with Tangier in under two hours by high-speed train. Rabat-Sale airport is about 20 minutes away by taxi. Drivers will find parking by the gate.

Rules and what to bring

Do not climb on the tombs, walls or the minaret, and keep back from the stork nests, which are protected. Dress modestly out of respect for the shrines, with shoulders and knees covered, and do not enter areas closed off for restoration. Bring water, a hat and comfortable shoes for the steep path back up to the gate. Toilets are near the entrance; there is no restaurant inside, but cafes are close by in the city.

When to go

Chellah is rarely crowded, even in high season. Tour groups from Rabat and from Casablanca usually come in late morning as part of a city tour, and local families visit on weekend afternoons, so early morning on a weekday is the quietest time. Late afternoon gives warm light on the gate and the Roman stone, and the storks are most active at both ends of the day.

Spring, from March to May, is the best season, with flowers in the gardens and storks raising their chicks on the walls. Autumn is also pleasant. Rabat has a mild Atlantic climate, so summer is rarely as hot as inland Morocco, though the walk back up to the gate can be tiring at midday. Winter brings some rain. During Ramadan hours may be shorter. Allow an hour to an hour and a half.