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Lixus: The “Temples quarter” Lixus it is an ancient city founded by Phoenicians (8th-7th century BCE.) before the city of Carthage, its distinguishing feature is that it has been continuously occupied from Antiquity to Islam, and its remains founded date from the Phoenician (eighth–sixth centuries BCE), Punic (fifth–third centuries BCE), Mauretanian (second century BCE–CE 50), Roman (first–sixth centuries CE) and Islamic (twelfth–fifteenth centuries CE) periods. .

Geography
The archaeological site of Lixus is located in Morocco northeast of Larache city (70 km south of Tangier) on the right bank of the Loukkos river (4 km from the coast), Lixus was built on a hill of 80 meters above sea level, and covers 70 hectares, it dominates the Atlantic shore and the valley formed by the course of the river, it is surrounded by marshy plains to the south and southwest, in which salt factories have been installed. it was added to the UNESCO World Heritage tentative list on July 1, 1995 in the cultural category.

Name
The official language was Punic, used on the city's autonomous currency issues from the 2nd century BCE, the name of the site appears on coins in Punic as the triliteral LKS, and in Latin as LIX and LIXS (The Lixus / Lixos form is consecrated by the Greco-Latin tradition)

History
Lixus retained its strategic importance especially under Juba II and his son Ptolemy, its industrial complex was created during the reign of Juba II, and it was the largest and the most important in the entire Mediterranean. Fishing and viticulture were the city's main economic resources, so bunches of grapes and tuna adorned the coins. .The port of Lixus played an important role in Atlantic trade as the choice of the hill of Tchoummich corresponds perfectly to the conditions sought by the Phoenician sailors, whose economic activities were closely linked to the sea  . The last of the Moorish kings were assassinated by the Roman emperor Caligula around 40 CE. From then on, Lixus would be part of the Roman Empir e, more precisely the province of Mauretania Tingitania , until the beginning of the 5th century. Lixus becomes a colony under Claudius (50 CE) and ite preserves an amphitheater and a forum from this period. With the arrival of the Romans, the city will acquire new administrative, social, religious, and economic structures, and during the Roman period, the city maintained its commercial vitality, thanks to fishing and salt factories, and this conomic development allowed it an important urban and architectural evolution.

Lixus between 50 and 150 CE reached its maximum extension over more than 60 hectares and becomes the largest city of Tingitane. According to the first excavators, this prosperity waned from the second half of the 3rd century. In the 4th century, the agglomeration folded in on itself.

Legend
Such a far-away place was subject of myths, the garden of the Hesperides with the golden apples of  and the palace of Antaeus were said to have been here. By its vestiges the archaeological site reminds us of a long phase of the ancient history of the country, it also reminds us of thousands years old legends about Okeanus the roman ocean god ,Hercules and the three golden apples, the legendary fight of Hercules and Antaeus, Theseus slaying the Minotaur, and about Hercules separating Africa from Europe. Pliny the Elder reports several «fabulous tales»: «Here was the royal palace of Antaeus, his fight with Hercules and the gardens of the Hesperides were here ..... Hercules had to enter to this garden to steal the golden apples; the entrance was guarded by a dragon....» Pliny saw in this dragon an allegory of the river described by many meanders.

Excavations
This archaeological site was composed of complex quarters with entangled buildings from various periods whose study allows us to examine the evolution and chronology of the city, for example, the area of temples, the largest excavated area of the site (165 m east-west by 250 m north-south). Thanks to the excavations undertaken from 1999 to 2001 by a Moroccan-french team it was possible to reconsider the evolution of the "Temples quarter". ,

Evolution of the "Temples quarter "
Based on several references, the evolutionary scheme of this quarter could be divided into 5 major phases which correspond to 5 historical periods each marked by special and distinctive architectural features:

Phoenician period (8th-first half-century to 7th century BCE)
The first Phoenician structures of the sector correspond to two structures A and L :


 * Building A orientated east-west, obliterated by later constructions, retains only a few sections of regular walls made of quadrangular stones and megalithic blocks. The excavations, undertaken in the immediate vicinity, have revealed synchronous archaeological material dating from the Phoenician period (8th-first half of the 7th century BCE).
 * Remains of the L structure have a rectangular shape; they were discovered in 2000 under building K. The equipment corresponding, including a large amount of modeled ceramic, associated with red slip ceramic, also belongs to the Phoenician period.

In the north, researchers have found an L shaped dating from the pre-Augustan period, it’s a Cryptoporticus (40 m length, 6 m width) with a central axis with columns supporting an upper platform, This remains could be a piazza structure, or a large sanctuary, with a temple in the center. On the ground floor, there were remains of storage space, and an area with a garden closed off by a wing, it is probable that this sanctuary was Phoenician in origin. In the South-west of the quarter, under the courtyard of the «annexes» of building F, an archaeological survey showed a level of Phoenician ceramics characterized by a strong presence of red slip, Pithoi, and jugs of Cruz de Negro type.

Punic-Mauritanian period (4th century to 3rd century BCE)
After the Second Punic Wa r, western Mauretania was ruled by kings and the role and importance of fish products from the straits in international trade increased, the numerous fragments of amphorae, intended specifically for packaging fish products, indicate that the city has exported much of its catch.

The Punico-Mauritanian phase is stratigraphically represented by residual furniture dating from the 4th-3rd centuries BCE. Stratigraphic layers under building G contain fragments of Attic ceramics and amphoric material which attest that the area was occupied by locals during this period. In the west, the excavations located in building E, have allowed obtaining a fragment, dating of the second half of the 1st century BCE.

The southwestern side of the so-called "Temples quarter" is known as the ‘Montalban chambers’. Changes in the internal layout of those buildings were made around 30 BCE. This included the opening of new windows and doors with voussoir arches in the southern wall, this is an example of the general refurbishment and maintenance work of an urban project as a complex. The city before the first century BCE had an open space covering up to 4,000m², arranged on three terraces with a double cistern as indicates pottery founded from this phase.

Mauritanian period (3rd century to 2nd century BCE)
Researchers have found that the Mauritanian phase could be subdivided into two phases:


 * Phases 1: is characterized by the emergence of a real neighborhood probably composed of houses, a cistern, and buildings K, E, B, and C, East-west oriented, this set was surrounded by an enclosure. Surveys carried out in those different buildings allow us to date this phase from the first half of the 1st century BCE.
 * Phase 2 : has known the addition of the building commonly called H and the pre-thermal building J. dating back to the time of Augustus or Juba II.

The excavations have identified two rooms E elongated of a few m² located in the south-east of the sector, they have doors on the west side, leaving space for a passageway behind the walls. Rooms are preceded by a vestibule and a staircase of building D. The chambers were built gradually, in several stages during the pre-Augustan period; they would have supported an upper story, and they were then incorporated into the new early Augustan complex.

A Mauretanian storehouse was found at the western limit of the ‘"Sacred gardens", the new structure that covered the storehouses has formed the southern facade of a new monumental area named «Western wing» (28m width by 100 m length).

In the eastern sector, researchers have found buildings that might be interpreted as places of worship with a rectangular floor plan (C, A, D, B),. Building C (12.7*10.5 m) has a podium in Opus Quadratum and an almost square Cella with double doors; building D has superimposed floors in Opus Siginum with marble. Their location, in the upper part of the urban area, and with an open area in front of them, supports the proposal that they were temples without substantial buildings laid out behind them.

Buildings F, G, and H were structures with porticoes and apse s and that the movement between them was fluent thanks to various doors. The religious buildings in the east of the site were probably temples and they remained in use even after the Augustan renovation of the quarter.

Under the portico of building F, there was a cistern that date to after the annexation of Mauretania in 43 CE   (9.5m long and 3m deep) which may have been related to a channel located slightly to the southern side.

Indeed, The area with the sanctuary, gardens, and some storehouses, which was built in the Mauretanian phase, was replaced by a palatial residence of Juba II of Mauretania covering 7,000 m², which was larger than the  ‘Palace of Gordianus’ in Volubilis, which covers only 4,554 m².

The ‘Palace of Juba II’, was on the upper slope of the south side of the «Choumich» hill,, it took full advantage of the panoramic possibilities of its position, it used architectural elements such as apses or semicircular porticoes, in combination with large windows and triple doors, this shows a splendid use of ambiguity between covered spaces (halls and exedrae), porticoes, gardens, and the landscape.

Some of the peculiarities of the palace in Lixus: The designer extended the spaces intended for clients. The court with the plinth s is the equivalent of the doorway to a conventional Tablinum, and the hall in complex G is an oversized Oecus, and it was a kind of gallery for displaying statues.

Based on this interpretation, building F, situated in the middle of the garden and surrounded by porticoes, would be the principal Triclinium of Lixus’s palace; this great Triclinium would have been the venue for important official events, as an Oecus Cyzicenus for feasting and at the same time, enjoying the landscape.

Roman period (40 ِCE to early 5th century CE)
In recent excavation campaigns, researchers discovered the existence of levels that could be ascribed to late Roman times, and it is clear that the so-called "Temples quarter" suffered from major destruction that may be attributed to Aedemon’s revolt, after this critical period that could be dated to between 40 and 50 CE the palace was repaired

Whoever, this Roman phase corresponds also to a notable change in the urban landscape :  In the northern sector of the "Temples quarter", there was structures that take up the space between exedra H and building G. The hall complex was interpreted as beginning with a Corinthian Atrium with six pilasters. A bath complex probably belonging to the Flavian period was built against the northern wall of the Atrium. Continuing northwards, a row of four cubicles (The largest of them measures 4*7 m) interconnected with each other have large doors opening onto a U-shaped peristyle decorated with columns, adorned with ionic capitals, and opened through a door onto the gallery of the Cryptoporticus. The principal floor of the western wing has contained a room with five doors that lead into the peristyle surrounding the building F. The first leads into the south of the peristyle, the second leads into a room with a skyligh t in the ceiling to provide overhead lighting, the third and fourth doors have connected one of the cubicles with building F. Finally, the fifth door has connected the U-shaped peristyle G to the large peristyle F via a short passage.

Complexes F, G, and H were built at the same time, Building H was identified as a temple when it was discovered, it surrounded an interior garden with an ornamental feature, Building F was a large temple. This opinion was shared by later authors.

Next to the rooms mentioned above, there was a large Oecus which was the most important room in the whole of the western area. It was a huge T-shaped hall (14 m length *12 m width) adjoining a sophisticated chamber adorned with some canopies resting on 7 small cylindrical columns. . Researchers have found also a rectangular Corinthian atrium with two rows of plinths M, served as the antechamber to a rectangular court decorated, and continued to the entrance in the eastern wall, where a great door has led into the large hall G which marked the northern end of the western wing.

Medieval period (12th century to 14th century)
Ruins on the hill of Lixus show a rectangular religious building, hammâm, and a mighty fountain on its bank. The cartography does not highlight the existence of any tower or strategic installation in the place. In the 1st century CE, The "Temples quarter" was adorned with public buildings including thermal baths, outbuildings, and buildings with an undetermined function.

The quarter had become the northern end of the city which has extended to the salt factories, after the withdrawal of the Roman administration in the south of the province and the relocation of Roman in the northern border of Loukkos river.

The row of small temples (C, A, D, and B) faced east. , had survived until the final days of ancient Lixus, they had behind them a large open area extended to the end of the western wall of the city. A row of rooms bordered the space to the west, with some internal subdivisions that were built on the preexisting walls dating from the eighth–seventh centuries. The Opus Signinum pavements and opus Quadratum podium had been built by the early second century

Researchers suggest the presence of arcades and pergolas decorating the terraced gardens, which lead to the hypothesis that this whole area was a large urban sanctuary, including a variety of buildings laid out on different levels: some storage buildings, a temple surrounded by a cryptoporticus, and a relatively large cistern...

Indeed, the city of Lixus was in the fourteenth century an urban center densely populated more than the neighboring village, Larache, and it certainly remained inhabited even after the Arab-Islamic conquest, bearing the name of Tochoummis until the 14th century. Ruins of houses and a mosque built in the Almohad or Marinid period have survived from this period; Apparently, Lixus was abandoned when the city of Larache was fortified and consolidated.

Finally, we should mention that as part of the implementation of the High Royal Guidelines aimed at rehabilitating the national cultural heritage, the Ministry of Culture and Communication has launched a vast program of restoration and rehabilitation of historic sites through the national territory of Morocco, involving the archaeological site of Lixus by highlighting the characteristics of the site and promoting the destination on the regional, national and international tourist map to contribute to local economic and social development. New facilities were built including two exhibition halls offering a broad overview of the Lixus site and its history, and a laboratory specializing in processing and restoration of archaeological objects. And to publicize the site, visits in favor of students and civil society are organized throughout Heritage Month (April 18-May 18), in addition to workshops about history and archaeological excavations in Lixus.