Pompeii

Of all the tourist sites we have visited during our time living in Spain, the Mezquita of Cordoba is probably the coolest (for those who missed it, you can read about our visit there in our 5/24/18 post). I bring up the Mezquita because I think Pompeii is another site that goes on my "coolest places to visit in Europe list".

You probably all know the basic story: in 79 C.E., Mount Vesuvius erupted and buried Pompeii (and several other cities) under 13-20 feet of volcanic ash. Most of the people in the city were killed instantly and many have been found oddly preserved by the ash:

It is not the best picture to show this, but the object in the glass box is actually a dog who was curled into a fetal-type position against the super-hot gases and ash, and it was preserved that way for over 1500 years.

What amazed us about Pompeii was two things. First, when it was destroyed, Pompeii had already existed for at least 700 years! It was founded in the 6th or 7th century B.C.E. It had been used as a safe port by Phonecian sailors, the Etruscans are believed to have been there in the 6th century, and the Greeks first conquered Pompeii between 525 and 474 B.C.E. Second, and perhaps related, Pompeii was a very large city. I had always pictured something relatively small - after all, this was nearly 2000 years ago - but it turns out that to fully explore the ruins of Pompeii would take something like two full days, and not all of it has even been unearthed yet.

We did not have two days to spend at Pompeii. We were with our friends Matt and Amy who had booked a private two hour tour of the city. So, while we did have a guide just for the four of us, we definitely only saw a limited part of the city. I really don't even know where to begin.

As you walk through the cobble-stoned streets of Pompeii, the first thing you notice is large stone blocks at many corners and sometimes in the middle of a longer street. These are ancient "crosswalks" intended to allow people to cross the street without stepping in what was running through the streets themselves (we'll let everyone use their imagination on what that might have been). Also obvious are the divisions of one building from the next. The city appears to have been like modern large cities in that businesses are interspersed with houses. Here we are at the "door" of a large bakery (notice the kiln-type oven over my right shoulder).

While the businesses are impressive, generally the houses are even more so. The part of Pompeii we saw was apparently the high-rent district with a number of large and impressive houses. What is amazing is some of the art that has survived for at least 2000 years. This is painted on a wall:

Here is a mosaic "welcome mat" in front of a large home. It is literally a permanent "Beware of Dog" sign.

Of course, there are many public squares and buildings including public baths, which we went in but were not easy to photograph, temples to various Roman Gods, a large central square and, a basilica that inspired the traditional three-nave structure of Catholic Churches:

There are also several theaters and an amphitheater that on the map looks like a football (or futbol) stadium. We did not see the amphitheater as it is on the opposite side of the city from where we were visiting. This is the large theater. Note the seats close to the ground are made of marble and are (not surprisingly) for royalty and the wealthy, while the remaining seats are made of less-comfortable stone.

Due to fairly large crowds, we chose not to go to one of the brothels in town, but apparently they contain pictures of the various "services" on offer, which survive to this very day - the pictures, not the services. We saw some of them later when we visited the National Archaeological Museum in Naples.

Overall, we had a wonderful visit to Pompeii, and I would love to go back and spend more time seeing other parts of the city. As if we needed another reason to return to Italy.

Hasta luego,

Jeff and Shana