Chellah: Rabat's Walled Garden of Ruins and Storks

Most visitors to Morocco's capital tick off the Hassan Tower, wander the blue-and-white lanes of the Kasbah of the Udayas, and move on. Barely two kilometres away, behind a set of honey-coloured ramparts, sits the one place in Rabat that almost nobody puts on the list — and the one that stays with you longest.

Chellah is two lost cities stacked on a single hillside above the Bou Regreg valley. Underneath lie the stones of Sala Colonia, a Roman port town. On top of them, the Marinid sultans of the fourteenth century built a walled royal burial ground with a mosque, a prayer lodge and a slender tiled minaret. Then everything was abandoned, and the gardens moved in.

Today it is green, shaded and improbably quiet. Fig trees and banana plants grow out of the old streets, white storks clatter their beaks from nests on top of the minaret, and you can sit on a bench in the shade and hear almost nothing else. For travellers who prefer their history unhurried, Chellah is worth the short detour — and it is one of the gentlest big sights in Morocco.

A little history

Chellah began as a settlement on the estuary long before Rome arrived. Under the Romans it became Sala Colonia, a working port town in the province of Mauretania Tingitana, with a main street, a forum, a triumphal arch and a temple. By the middle of the twelfth century the town had been abandoned, its population drifting across the river to Salé.

The ruins were given a second life in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, when the Marinid dynasty chose the hillside as a royal necropolis. Burials here began in the 1280s under Sultan Abu Yusuf Ya'qub. His successors enlarged the site considerably: Sultan Abu al-Hasan — remembered in Morocco as the Black Sultan — added the mosque complex, the prayer lodge and the great fortified gate, which was completed in 1339. He and his wife Shams al-Duha are both buried here.

After the fifteenth century the necropolis fell quiet again, and the earthquake of 1755 that devastated Lisbon brought down a good deal of what was left standing. That slow decay is exactly what makes the place so atmospheric now. Chellah was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list in 2012 as part of historic Rabat, and after several years of restoration work the site reopened to visitors in 2024 with a clearer marked route and an audio-guide option.

Roman remains inside Chellah, Rabat — the stones of the ancient town of Sala Colonia.

What to see

The site is compact. You could walk it in forty minutes, but allow an hour and a half to two hours and you will enjoy it far more.

The main gate

You enter through one of the most beautiful gates in Morocco: a tall ochre gateway flanked by two bastions, framed with carved stone and inscription bands, finished in 1339. Stop in the shade of the entrance passage before you go any further — it is a fine place to let your eyes adjust and your breath settle.

The Roman town

A path leads down into the excavated heart of Sala Colonia. You can make out the line of the main street, the open space of the forum, the base of a triumphal arch and the remains of a temple and public fountain. There is no need to understand every stone; the pleasure is in seeing a Roman street with wildflowers growing through it.

The Marinid necropolis and minaret

Beyond the Roman level stands the walled Islamic quarter: a ruined mosque, the prayer lodge with its small courtyard and pool, carved stucco and patches of original zellij tilework, and the royal tombs. Rising above it all is the minaret, decorated in coloured tile and almost always crowned with an enormous untidy stork nest.

The storks and the garden

The white storks are the unofficial owners of Chellah. They nest on the minaret and on every high stump of wall, and their clattering carries across the whole enclosure. Around them the site has grown into a semi-wild garden of figs, oranges, palms and bamboo, with benches tucked in the shade. There is also a spring-fed pool below the lodge, long associated with local legends and offerings — a quiet corner rather than a spectacle.

The main gate of Chellah in Rabat, completed in 1339 under Sultan Abu al-Hasan.

The best hour to be there

Chellah rewards good timing more than most monuments. Come in the first hour or two after opening, or in the late afternoon. The low sun turns the walls and the minaret a deep gold, the storks are busiest at their nests, and the hillside is still cool.

Midday in summer is the one time to avoid: the lower Roman level is open and reflective, and shade is patchy. If you can only go at midday, take the shaded upper paths, sit often, and treat it as a garden visit rather than a ruin tour.

The site has also hosted a long-running jazz festival in the spring, with concerts held inside the walls. If your trip falls in that season it is worth asking your hotel whether anything is scheduled — the acoustics in a ruined courtyard at dusk are something else entirely.

Roman ruins in the foreground, the minaret and mosque of the zawiya behind, with white storks perched above. Chellah, Rabat.

A day trip nearby

Across the Bou Regreg river sits Salé, Rabat's older and far less visited twin. The tram crosses the bridge and takes roughly 10 to 15 minutes from the Rabat side, dropping you a short walk from the ramparts of the old town.

The reason to go is the Medersa of Abu al-Hasan, a small Quranic college built around 1341 by the same sultan who built Chellah's great gate. It is tiny compared with the famous medersas of Fes and Marrakech, which is part of its charm: an intricate central courtyard of carved cedar, stucco and tile that you can take in slowly without a crowd. A narrow, steep staircase climbs to a roof terrace with a wide view over Salé and across to Rabat — worth it if stairs are comfortable for you, and no great loss if they are not.

Next door stands the Great Mosque of Salé, one of the oldest and largest in the country. As with most working mosques in Morocco, non-Muslims cannot enter the prayer hall, but the exterior and the surrounding lanes are rewarding in themselves. Half a day is plenty.

Honest advice for comfortable travel

Chellah is manageable for most reasonably mobile visitors over 60, but it is not flat, and it is not paved in the modern sense. Here is the honest picture.

• The site sits on a slope. From the gate, the path descends into the Roman town and climbs back again. The return to the exit is uphill — gentle, but real. Budget energy for it.
• Surfaces are uneven. Expect stone steps without handrails, original Roman paving, packed earth and the occasional narrow passage. Flat shoes with grip matter more here than anywhere else in Rabat.
• A walking pole or stick is genuinely useful, especially on the steps down to the lower level.
• Wheelchairs and walkers will struggle beyond the upper terraces. That said, the view from near the entrance — walls, minaret, storks and garden — is lovely in itself, and a shorter visit is a perfectly good visit.
• Shade is uneven. Bring a hat, sunglasses and water; carry your own bottle rather than relying on finding one inside.
• Facilities are limited. Use the bathroom before you arrive, and don't count on a café inside.
• Allow 1.5 to 2 hours at an unhurried pace, including sitting time on the benches.
• Stay centrally in Rabat, near the medina, Hassan Tower or the Agdal district. From any of these a petit taxi reaches Chellah in about 10 minutes, which saves you a long approach walk at both ends of the day.
• Agree the taxi fare or ask for the meter before setting off, and ask the driver to drop you at the gate itself rather than on the main avenue.

Inside the Chellah site in Rabat, with ruins and vegetation on the sloping ground (June 2024).

What to eat

There is no restaurant inside Chellah, so plan your meal around the visit rather than during it. Rabat does this well.

The capital faces the Atlantic, and fresh fish is its everyday luxury: grilled sardines, sole, sea bass, calamari and prawns, often simply done with chermoula, the herb, garlic, cumin and lemon marinade. For a gentler lunch, a tagine — chicken with preserved lemon and olives, or lamb with prunes — is slow-cooked, soft and easy on the digestion.

If you want one celebratory dish, look for pastilla, the layered pie of thin pastry with poultry or seafood, warm spices and, in the classic version, a dusting of cinnamon and sugar. Harira, the tomato, lentil and chickpea soup, makes a light and comforting evening meal.

For breakfast or a mid-afternoon pause, order msemen, a flaky folded flatbread, with honey and a glass of sweet mint tea. The cafés around the medina edge and in the Kasbah of the Udayas are made for exactly this kind of slow sitting — and tea, in Morocco, is never rushed.

Getting there

Chellah lies roughly 2 km south-east of central Rabat, just outside the city's old Almohad walls, in the quiet administrative quarter near the royal palace grounds.

The outer walls of Chellah, Rabat.

Our verdict

Chellah is the rarest kind of monument: a major historic site that still feels like a secret. It asks nothing of you but a short taxi ride, a careful pair of shoes and a willingness to sit down and look.

Go in the late afternoon. Walk the Roman street, climb slowly back up to the Marinid tombs, find a bench under a fig tree and watch the storks come and go from the minaret. In an hour you will have travelled through two thousand years of Morocco without ever being jostled.

For travellers over 60 it is a near-ideal half-day: short distances, real shade, genuine beauty, and the option to turn back whenever you have had enough. Of everything we have visited in Rabat, this is the one we would return to first.

“Two empires fell here, and the storks moved in — Chellah is the loveliest ruin in Morocco precisely because no one is in a hurry.”

Photo credits

• Chellah landscape: HalaRah, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• Roman s Ruins in Chellah Rabat Morocco: JasmineartGallery, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• Main Gate Chellah Rabat Nov25 A7CR 08921: This Photo was taken by Timothy A. Gonsalves . Feel free to use my photos, but p, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• Roman Ruins Zawiya Chellah Rabat Nov25 A7CR 08989: This Photo was taken by Timothy A. Gonsalves . Feel free to use my photos, but p, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• Le site du Chellah à Rabat, Maroc 2-2: Bertrand SOUBEYRAND, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• Walls of Chellah Rabat: JasmineartGallery, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons