4 months 3 bags 2 chances: Pompeii archeological site including REE Enactments

Didn't we have a lovely time the day we went to Pompeii

Lucky us. Because its the labour day public holiday, entry to Pompeii is "gratis". This is good news. as per everything Italy, a "few" other people also heard the news.

Walking in to Pompeii.

Notice the ordered line. People moving in every direction

The archeological site is so big that it never seems really crowded. In some areas, relatively quiet. This is, I suppose point 1 - Pompeii was not small. Town of 20000 which was founded in 600BC ie by the time it got kapowed it was 700 years old and with all the mod cons. There were 7 bathing houses, numerous fast food joints, bakeries, theatres, temples. Pompeii had its own mini colosseum fighting ring which could hold about 20000. After a few riots, Nero shut it down.

Pompeii was your standard, turn of the century port town. In truth, even then it didn't have whole lot going for it. No real culture of it's own. Not a classy place.

The town was on the ocean; proper port town, with roads for chariots from the water leading into the town. It lay in the shadows of Mount Vesuvius, a single peaked mountain 8kms away that had last erupted in 1200BC. The folk of Pompeii had no idea it was a volcano. There is no record of this, but its likely that real estate sold highly based on views of Mount Vesuvius.

The photo below is taken from the "Pompeii Forum". Note the mountain in the background is Vesuvius. It has two peaks now. It used to be a single higher peak, but the eruption essentially blew its top off and left a crater and two peaks instead of a much larger single peak.

Pompeii forum - Vesuvius in the background

Pompeii History

Short version: Rumble, rumble, bang, ash, ash, ash, ash, ash, ash - ixnae on the ompeiipstae

Longer Version: August 24, 79AD. A normal morning until a large tremor is suddenly felt. Soon after, a massive explosion occurs, with a column of debris and volcanic ash jettisoned up to 20km into the sky. The enormity is unimaginable and possibly exaggerated by Pliny as they were wont to do. Pliny the younger wrote what happened down in a letter 25 years after he had witnessed the event (he was near Naples). He was quite interested as his Uncle, Pliny the elder, who was a Roman Navy Admiral, was a first responder. Pliny the elder was killed when he went into Pompeii to rescue citizens from the ash (history repeats).

Interesting facts about Pliny's Letters. A bit like the bible they were written down a long time after the events. Pliny's were 25 years later. The date of the destruction of Pompeii comes from one letter but there are clues to suggest teh date is out by a good few months (not that it really matters, but for we, the obsessive, it does). Soem may suggest that the gospels may also contain some factual innacuracy. I remain mute on the issue for reasons relating to matrimonial harmony.

Regardless of the date, Vesuvius blew its top and over the next few hours, ash began to fall on Pompeii. It was more like snow and small hailstones and within a few hours the town was covered by 3 metres of volcano spew. Many had hidden in their houses. Usually the rooves were crushed by the weight of ash crushing anyone underneath. 3 metres in a few hours is also quite unimaginable. Roads now 10 feet below ash, houses completely covered. The ash was also hot and clogged everything; water pipes, windows, lungs etc.

Although it has been assumed that ash killed the inhabitants, the real cause of death was heat. Surges of more than 250 degrees celcius occurred 10 km from the volcano. Makes more sense when you see the postiion of the entombed inhabitants. Some of their arm positions wouldnt fit with ash (at least according to Zoe).

Garden of the Fgitives

Vesuvius spewed the column of ash for about 18 hours then "settled". The next morning, the second blast hit. This blast made the first seem like a gentle smoke ring. Hot gas and ash hit the town like a tidal wave. Within minutes all life in Pompeii was snuffed out - incinerated and suffocated. About two thousand were killed (roasted and entombed). It wasn't 20000 as some, mainly the Christians, had felt rumbles (which were common anyway, but more common leading up to the eruption) and left fearing the Gods were angry.

In the end, Pompeii was buried under 6 metres of volcano gunk. A kind of post apocalyptic grey and desolated ex-town

Then a bigger wave again, but this one missed Pompeii (yay). Thought to be travelling at about 160km/hr like a red hot avalanche, it hit the nearby town of Herculaneum (boo). Herculaneum got buried in 20 metres of hot "mud". later this cooled into stone.

Pompeii was pretty much forgotten until 1600s and then became a bit of a sensation, at least in mags such as "archeology monthly" in the mid 1700s as excavations began. All good unitl 19th century souvenir hunters, the odd earthquake, a few WW2 bombs and an earthquake in 1980. As a footnote, Vesuvius is still an active volcano.

The only two in Pompeii with hats

Inside the law courts. Note only the bottom of the pillars are present. They were beingnrefurbishednat the time and hadn't got finished when Vesuvius struck (much like many of Italy's current day monuments)

Video reenactment: Morning of August 24, 79AD.

Zozo takes over the navigation

Tacky statues remain

Bit gross

Lot gross

See if you can see Drew in the picture below

If you couldn't see him, it's not because he is well hidden, its because he went missing.wondered off to check out a beetle or lizard or some bug. Pompeii is a big place and was very crowded in some areas but its hard tonged out of, so, relatively calmly, we started our search. Zoe found him in the ancient bath houses, "looking for us".

The houses were small so had no bath or shower. Off you went to the local baths. THere were 6 in Pompei, each with a mens and separate womens section. They had a gymnasium for a pre bath workout and them cold, warm and hot baths. The engineering was pretty impressive - under floor heating

In the pictures below you can see the lil statues with spaces between, they are the lockers. The floors were non-slip mosaic as opposed to the super slipppery, think cartoon character on a banana peel floor Inglewood swimming pool put in at their last renovation.

Lockers

Lie here for warm bath and a massage

After a good bath you would be hungry right? Lucky for you Ancient Pomepeiins, there is a "fast food joint across the street. Most didn't cook for themselves (houses too small) so it was off the the local PomDonalds for dinner. You can see the holes for the large cooking pots and places for stirring etc.

Reenactment - Pompeii dinner time

There were also bakeries in each naeighbourhood. The bakeries had stone towers which were flour grinders. Donkeys or slaves pushed wooden bars that turned the stones. Whole grains poured in the top came out the bottom as flour.

Reenactment - Pompeii bakery, grinding the flour. The thing in the background that looks like a pizza oven is a pizza oven.

All roads lead to Rome

I thought this was a motto but actually, all roads did lead to Rome. Follow the raised basalt road right to the centre of Rome. The roads are raised to hide the plumbing which runs underneath them. Not so hard is it Greece? Also, when you look at the roads, there are lil bits of broken pots embedded. This was a kind of ancient form of recycling. Also also, there are bits of reflective marble embedded - the cats eyes of Pompeii.

The streets are angled a bit one side to the other. Each day the good folk of Pompeii would flood the streets with water to wash them down. Mmmmm their friends would say, you have clean streets.

Pompeii got it's water from an aquaduct that began 150kms away in the hills. It would carry fresh water to a rewervoir at the highest point of the city and then arches around the city. These arches were like substations that would then allow consistent water pressure.

Rome is thataway

Strolling into the amphitheatre

What they almost certainly were not doing was running in to see the 1971 live Pink Flloyd show recorded in this very amphitheatre. Not surprisingly, their audience consisted of the film crew and some local children.