May 16-
The entire Bay of Naples & its towns lie at the foot of a looming mountain that is an active Volcano. It is considered one of the most dangerous volcanos in the world because the area below is so densely populated- nearly 3 million people at its base today. Its most recent eruption was in 1944 but the most legendary eruption is the one recorded by Pliny the Younger in 79 AD. It is this eruption that caused the disappearance of many ancient towns and moved the coast back hundreds of meters.
Today we climbed the mountain to have a view of the cone of the volcano up close and toured 2 of the towns demolished by the eruption of 79 AD- Pompeii and Herculaneum.
Pompeii is the more well known of the two. It was the larger & more cosmopolitan city- a port city with many merchants, shops, fountains, 2 theaters, an amphitheater, government buildings, a large forum, temples, brothels, palaces and modest homes. It hosted visitors from all over Europe. Almost 2/3 of the city has been completely excavated allowing modern day visitors to get a sense of what it was like to live in an ancient town.
Herculaneum was a smaller mostly resort/beach town for wealthy Romans. It is actually better preserved with homes and baths still intact with frescos and mosaics. There are still some homes with wooden doorway & entryways that are "fossilized and carbonized" (as our energetic guide Francesca repeated each time she pointed out one).
We learned that most of the population of Pompeii perished from falling ash and poisonous smoke while the residents of Herculaneum were buried by molten lava. The differences in the proximity of the town to the volcano & their destruction explains the differences in the way they present today. It truly is a marvel how archeologists over the last 200 years have been able to chip away the volcanic earth and stone to reveal these buried cities...
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| The streets of Herculaneum |
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The world's first fast food bar-
the openings held pots of soup to be sold to passersby for a quick meal |
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| Fully intact mosaic in public bathhouse |
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| Mosaic from the "House of Neptune" |
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| Pompeii |
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| Premier theatre seats |
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Pompeii's Forum with Vesuvius in the background-
In 79 AD, this was a single peaked mountain almost twice as high.
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Wheat grinder in a bakery-
found nearby was an oven with 8 loaves of fossilized bread "cooking" inside |
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The volcanic ash buried residents and after thousands of years a void was left where a body used to be-
archeologists were able to make a plaster mold...
The terror is too much to think about for too long... |
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View from atop Mt. Vesuvius-
another long UPHILL hike! |
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| Overlooking the crater cone |
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| Sulfur gases rising from the cone |
