Pompeii

Pompeii what can I say , was incredible, sad , amazing.

I don't think I am going to babble too much about this, just let the pictures do the talking. But I will say this I took way too many photos . . . . . LOL

Two thirds of Pompeii has been unearthed, at the moment their priority is stabilising and protecting what they have, before considering unearthing more.....

The roads of Pompeii where you can see the tracks the carts made. The three stones across the road mean't this was a two way street, if there is only one of two it's one way .  . 

My Versuvius in the background

water fountain s were throughout the town, they would carve faces of people on the fountains which were for humans, and animals on the ones for animals. At the base of every fountain there was a hole which allowed the water to flow down the street and wash the debris away.

One of the beautiful frescos found on a wall in a villa, this one was on a garden wall, and depicts Venus.

This exhibition was on when we were at Pompeii, the black round item is charred bread and in the little glass dishes are the seeds or remains of various foods, found in either Herculaneum or Pompeii.

This room was believed to be a summer bedroom, it had a window and was close to the garden area. The frescoes were lovely . . . . 

This is a wash area in a professional laundry, see on the right hand side of the room the two square shape pits, they were the toilets for the staff, but they could only wee in the toilets. Urine as most of you probably know is full of ammonia, so in Pompeii urine was used to help clean clothing. The emperor had imposed a urine tax, so in a method to dodge paying the tax, the laundry owner obtained some tax free urine from his employees . . . . . 

These grape vines are pretty special. Other than the fact that they are planted exactly where there were grapes growing prior to the eruption , they are planted exactly as they would have been ( very 

close together) and according to our guide  these grape vines are exactly the same type as grown back then as they have compared the DNA found in seeds from the time of the eruption. Isn't science just amazing . . . . . 

This interesting bench is a measuring device, for ? A shop. They used the size of the hole to determine the quantity and price.

This is Mac Pompeii, this was a fast food outlet, they can tell by the quantity of terracotta pots built into the bench. If there were only one or two, it was possibly a wine bar, 3 or 4 a takeaway food outlet. In the background you can see amphorae , which were used to store liquids.

This was the calidarium in the womens bath houses in Pompeii, look at the beautifully carved walls, the rich red colour. 

The gardens / water feature in the Villa of Julia Felix , Pompeii. They have tried to re-create the garden as they believe they would have been and in some cases they have planted trees where they know the same trees grew before the eruption.

It's not a great photo, it was hard to get the shot, but such a moving scene, these plaster moulds are where they found them. This group of people died all within reach of each other, in this place. What I didn't realise was that the people of Pompeii all most probably died from the poisoness gases. It was really interesting to learn how they made these casts and how they are using the same technique to make moulds of doors , windows ect . . . . 

This was a wall mural in what is believed to be a winter bedroom.

This is just one section of a huge shed where they have stored all the things they have found throughout the site.  The anchor was found near the Porta Marina ( marine gate).

Pompeii was amazing, so interesting and so very very sad.  

At the moment there is a lot of work taking place on this site, which will hopefully continue to create an environment that will allow us to better understand how the people from Pompeii lived.

Ciao 

Googy Girl