CHRISTIAN PRISON

After the mausoleum, you come to a square with a field enclosed by wrought-iron gates. Inside lies what would have been the Christian prison, also known as Qara's prison. It is said that Qara was a Portuguese prisoner, having negotiated his freedom with Moulay Ismaïl if he succeeded in building a prison capable of holding up to 40,000 people. The maze of underground passages once extended over a circle 7 km in diameter. Legend even has it that the walls extended as far as Taza, near Fez. Today, with most of it destroyed by the earthquake of 1755, only three large rooms, 80 m long and 25 m wide, can be visited, lit by openings made in 1968. Legend has it that the prisoners, whose mission was to transport the marble blocks from Volubilis to Meknes, abandoned their work when Moulay Ismaïl's death was announced. This would explain the presence of marble blocks littering the road leading to Volubilis. A few meters away, in a large wooden canopied building known as the Ambassadors' Pavilion, negotiators met to free the Moroccan sultan's hostages, captured at sea. They were either exchanged or sold, or condemned to die on the spot if negotiations failed. It was here, moreover, that the fate of several dozen French prisoners was decided on three occasions, but the missions sent by Louis XIV failed each time in their attempts...