Pompeii
14 de junio, Italia ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C
Today we woke up early and went to Termini and caught a train to Naples and then a bus to Pompeii. We met with our private tour guide Benedetto. He showed us around the excavated ancient city of Pompeii.
Pompeii is at the base of Mount Vesuvius, an active volcano in Italy. The city was destroyed by an eruption that was in the year 79. The eruption lasted for three whole days! The people in Pompeii died in one second from the toxic gasses in the air. Once they were dead, ash landed on them and over time hardened around their bodies. The last moments of the persons life were captured for all time by the hardening of the ash. Over time the people inside decomposed leaving lasting impressions. When archeologists found a body in the ground they would identify the find by hearing a hollow sound under where they were digging. They would drill some small holes through to the hollow and then fill the holes with plaster cast. Once set they would continue carefully digging to expose the cast of what had been there. With this process they were able to do this with many organic things like animals and plants.
I think Pompeii is hard to describe. It is very imposing, and you can not comprehend that it was there thousands of years ago.
Did you know that in Pompeii they had takeaway drive through like shops? They had jars set into the benchtop with volcanic rock to keep the food in the jars warm. The Romans were so smart.
Did you know that Romans had holes in their roofs and floors to collect rain water? They had a deeper part of the floor where the water gathered. This part of the house was called the Atrium.
And lastly did you know that the reason they lived near an active volcano is because of the soil. The soil near volcanos is very fertile, which means it is very good for growing plants.
We then went to Herculaneum, a city closer to Mount Vesuvius. In Herculaneum, there are more ruins. These ones are better intact because a volcanic mud called pyroclastic flow would have come after the eruption and solidified, giving better support for the buildings.
The difference between Pompeii and Herculaneum is that while in Pompeii it would have rained ash like snow. The weight of all the ash on the roofs made the roofs collapse. Meanwhile, in Herculaneum the pyroclastic flow would have gone through the houses and solidified, holding up the floors and roofs.
In Herculaneum and Pompeii there are lots of artworks on the walls and floors. You can still see the nice colours that were there long ago. On the floors, they had a type of art called Mosaic. Mosaics are pictures made by gluing tiles to the floor. The tiles are really small and different shapes. The mosaics and artworks are very beautiful. The pictures were showing Roman versions of the Greek myths.
The Romans stole the gods from the Greeks. The Romans admired the Greeks and taught Greek in school. The Romans gave the gods different names.
In Herculaneum, they would have had more time to escape. On the second day it would have been too late. Because it was near the sea, lots of people escaped from the volcano. Only around 300 bodies were found in Herculaneum.
We took a train from Herculaneum to Naples, and Naples to Termini. We then took a metro to our stop.
It was late at night when we got home. We had showers and went to sleep.
Tomorrow we have to get up really early and have family photos taken.
See you then,
LuccaLeer más
so interesting! must be impressive to see the houses , conserved so long ago! [adrie kik]
Viajero Wow Lucca, that is a lot of very interesting information of the old Romans, I think you learned much more of history than at school in one year . Complements!
We watched a documentary on TV only last night on this and its great that you are actually there. It is certainly amazing [Grandma & Nannie]