20257 min
The Lions That Belonged to a King
The Romans took 9,000 of them. The Atlas held the last few. Then in 1942, the last wild one was shot.
Thirty-three lions pace their enclosures in Rabat. They are descendants of the royal collection — the last bloodline of the Barbary lion, the animal that once terrified Roman legions and inspired the coat of arms of half a dozen nations.
