Naples #2 - Pompeii

Pompeii:
On August 24, A.D. 79, the Roman city of Pompeii was buried by the catastrophic eruption of Mount Vesuvius. The layers of pumice and thick volcanic ash that ended the lives of so many also encased the city in a virtual time capsule for the next 17 centuries. Buried under 4 - 6 meters of pumice and ash the city remained largely lost and forgotten until rediscovered by archaeologists in the early 1700s, resulting in Pompeii today being one of the most complete and intact archaeological sites in the world. It's excavation has provided a detailed insight into the life of a city at the height of the Roman Empire.

Entrance into Pompeii ruins.

Pompeii was actually a very modern city with running water (more in the form of aquaducts), bath houses, shops, vacation villas, great houses, restaurants, bars, a gymnasium, an amphitheater, and a large Forum. It was estimated the the city was about 20,000 inhabitants

During out visit to Pompeii, we were able to see many plaster casts of victims. These aren't the actual bodies, although one down below does have fragments of skeleton left in his molding. Liquid plaster was poured into the cavity left in the bed of ashes by the gradual decomposition of the victim's body. As the paster solidified, it reproduced the body's shape at time of death.

This one was determined to be an adult male, and a slave by the outline of the belt around his waist.

The Garden of Fugitives

The above 2 pictures are not mine, but are pictures of some more casts (from Pompeii) that are on display in the Archaeological Museum in Naples that we didn't get to see. I found it heartbreaking to see babies and young children as victims too.

Our guide told us that this was an alley of shops from the tracks on the ground where sliding doors would be.

Colorful mosiacs still filled alot of the interior rooms.

The only ceilinig to have survived in the city. Since most ceilings were made or framed with wood, most were destroyed,

The stones that are sticking up from the street were raised so that people could cross without getting their feet wet when it rained. All of the streets also had treadmarks still worn down in them from chariots and wagon wheels.

Above: A kitchen

Some more street views and intersections. The city went on and on in many directions, and I got lost from my group a few times and was really scared until I found them again! But I just couldn't help lingering behind to get shots without alot of people in them.

Tyler in a bakery near one of the bread stoves.

Above: The great stone mills to grind wheat.

Above: a dog