The banks cluster at the northern end of Blvd Mohammed V; most accept cash and travellers
cheques and have ATMs.
Cyber Space (Rue 2 Mars; per hr Dh6; 10am-midnight) Internet access.
Marnet (Ave Mohammed ben Abdallah; per hr Dh6; 10.30am-midnight Sat-Thu, 3pm-
midnight Fri) Internet access.
Getting There & Away
The bus station is south of the town centre on Rue du Caire. Destinations covered by CTM
buses include Agadir (Dh260, 12 hours), Casablanca (Dh100, four hours, three daily), Fez
(Dh80, four hours, three daily), Marrakesh (Dh190, eight hours), Meknès (Dh65, three hours,
three daily), Rabat (Dh70, three hours, three daily) and Tangier (Dh40, 2½ hours, three daily).
Cheaper non-CTM buses are generally more frequent. They cover the same destinations as
CTM buses, as well as Ouezzane (Dh30), Tetouan (Dh25) and Kenitra (Dh35).
Grands taxis run from outside the bus station to Ksar el-Kebir (Dh13) and occasionally to
Assilah (Dh15), Souk el-Arba (Dh25) and Tangier (Dh30).
Lixus
Set on a hill overlooking the Loukos Estuary are the Carthaginian and Roman ruins of Lixus
(admission free) , a rather mysterious and neglected site that is one of the oldest inhabited
places in the country. Only about a quarter of the ancient city has been excavated but the
visible ruins, though badly damaged and overgrown, are impressive. Although not as extensive
or as well excavated as Volubilis, the location, size and serenity of Lixus give it a lingering
sense of gravitas and with a little imagination you can picture just how grand and important this
city once was.
At the time of research, the site was not enclosed, but an information centre was being built.
Few visitors make it here outside the summer months, and in winter your only companions will
be the wind and the odd goat quietly grazing. The knowledgeable custodian, El Mokhtar el
Hannach, will show you round for around Dh50 per person.
History
Megalithic stones found in the vicinity of Lixus suggest that the site was originally inhabited by a
sun-worshipping people with knowledge of astronomy and mathematics. However, little more is
known about the area’s prehistory until the Phoenicians set up the colony Liks here in about
1000 BC. According to Pliny the Elder, it was here that Hercules picked the golden apples of
the Garden of Hesperides, thus completing the penultimate of his 12 labours. The golden
apples may well have been the famous Moroccan tangerines.
In the 6th century BC the Phoenician Atlantic colonies fell to the Carthaginians. Lixus
remained a trading post, principally in gold, ivory and slaves and, by AD 42, had entered the
Roman Empire. Its primary exports soon changed to salt, olives, wine and garum (an aromatic
fish paste) and its merchants also grew rich from the export of wild animals for use in the
empire’s amphitheatres.
The colony at Lixus rapidly declined as the Romans withdrew from North Africa, and was
abandoned completely in the 5th century, after the collapse of the Roman Empire. Later, the