History and Culture
See the Ruins of Pompeii
Pompeii... a city frozen in time. And what an amazing place it is. If they forced all the tourists to wear clothes of the period during their visit - you could imagine that you had been transported back in time. The streets and houses, shops and bakeries, even a brothel - all as they were nearly 2000 years ago.
The photo above shows the instrument of its destruction - Mt. Vesuvius - looming behind a few of the many hundreds of buildings uncovered in this incredible archeological find. I was accompanied by Tom, a young Australian whom I met at my hostel in Naples. We arrived at about 11:00am, and by the time we left at 6:00pm, we had barely seen half of the site. Here are some more images from our visit...
We strolled the well-preserved streets...
past a bakery...
and a fast-food shop...
on our way to one of the many public baths...
This is just the entrance - the bath itself is through the door on the left - and featured an ingenious (and efficient) system for heating the water. Then we visited the residential section. Most homes had a small pool built into the floor in the main living area...
Its purpose was to catch and store rainwater for drinking and for watering the many private gardens. Many of the more upscale homes also had elaborate mosaics decorating the floors and walls...
And the best of the best had large murals depicting life in first-century Pompeii.
They even had an extensive sports complex...
as well as a huge stadium where they staged contests of strength and agility...
But that was all before the eruption that buried Pompeii under several meters of rock and ash. Many of the residents were literally cut down in their tracks, with rather gruesome results...
