A UNESCO World Heritage site, Volubilis is the largest and best-preserved Roman ruins in Morocco. It dates largely from the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD, although excavations indicate that the site was originally settled by Carthaginian traders in the 3rd century BC. One of the Roman Empire’s most remote outposts, Volubilis was annexed in about AD 40. At its peak, it is estimated that the city housed up to 20,000 people. As the neighboring Berber tribes began to reassert themselves, the Romans abandoned Volubilis around 280 AD. Nevertheless, the city’s population of Berbers, Greeks, Jews and Syrians continued to speak Latin right up until the coming of Islam. Volubilis continued to be inhabited until the 18th century, when its marble was plundered for the building of Moulay Ismail’s palaces in Meknes.