Day 2: Vesuvius, Pompeii & Herculaneum

Today was a full schedule for the boys.  We climbed Mount Vesuvius and visited the ruins in Pompeii and Herculaneum.  Mount Vesuvius looms over the city of Naples.  Here is a view from near the top, looking down on the city.  In 79 AD Mount Vesuvius erupted in a fashion similar to the Mount St. Helens eruption in 1980.  This means the top of the mountain blew off in the eruption.  From the geological evidence and from frescoes of the mountain revealed in Pompeii, they estimate that the mountain was as much as 1,000 meters higher than it is today, and considerably wider.  The eruption covered a number of small cities and villages, the most famous of which are Pompeii and Herculaneum.

Here's a bunch of the boys atop the mountain.

After descending the mountain, we went to visit Pompeii.  Pompeii was originally settled by Greek colonists in the 700s BC.  Many Greek city-states faced overpopulation problems which they solved by sending out groups of citizens to establish new cities.  The southern portion of Italy was the location of many of these colonies--so many that the Romans called the area "Magna Graecia": Greater Greece.

Pompeii was covered by volcanic ash in the eruption of Vesuvius and was rediscovered in 1738 by workmen digging foundations for a summer palace for the Bourbon King of Naples, Charles.  Here we see what was Pompeii's gladiator school.  The area near Naples, Campania, was known for the excellence of its gladiator schools (training facilities).

Next to the gladiator school are two theaters.  This is the larger theater, which was built during the Greek period--before the Romans expanded their control to the area.  The theater is acoustically perfect and a person whispering from the center of the stage can be heard all the way in the furthest rows without any difficulty.

This is the smaller of the two theaters, built during Roman times.  It has the same acoustic characteristics as the larger theater next door.  As Pompeii was both an important port and a desirable vacation spot for wealthy Romans in ancient times, the sailors and the vacationers probably had no problems keeping both theaters full.

Immediately outside the theater we saw an ancient type of restaurant, a thermopolium.  The terra cotta inserts in the marble counter would be able to keep cooked food hot, so these were places where a Roman citizen could purchase an already-prepared meal.  Think of them as Pompeii's "fast food" restaurants!

We then walked over to a house called the House of Menander.  The villa actually belonged to a gentleman named Quintus Poppaeus, from the same family as the emperor Nero's second wife, Poppaea Sabina.  It is called the House of Menander because of a fresco of the Greek poet Menander inside.  This is a picture of the impluvium--a pool located in the atrium just inside the front door.  The impluvium originally served as a catch basin for a cistern underneath.

Immediately above the impluvium is a square opening in the roof which channeled rainwater down to the impluvium.  When the Romans took over, they built an aqueduct that delivered water to Pompeii, so the need for a cistern to catch rainwater became less important.  Houses of the wealthy had access to the aqueduct reservoirs, so had running water 2,000 years ago.

Here is a picture of the central garden in the House of Menander.

Here is the fresco of Menander.  They know it was him from the title of the book in the picture.

After the House of Menander, we found the public baths.  The public baths were also tied to the aqueduct.  The baths were segregated by sex (men and women did not bathe together) and featured rooms with hot, tepid and cold water.  Here one could get a bath and be scraped clean by a slave using a strigil.  The Romans did not have soap.  They used olive oil to clean themselves.  They would be rubbed with oil and then scrape off the oil and dirt with a device called a strigil--something similar to a popsicle stick.

This is the ceiling in the men's changing room of the baths.

After the baths we visited another famous building in Pompeii, the brothel.  Graffiti has been found throughout Pompeii advertising different brothels.  Outside the building prices for various services were displayed.  Inside, different frescoes painted above the entrances to the rooms showed what sort of entertainment a patron could expect in that room.

We then wrapped up our visit to the ruins of Pompeii by visiting the Forum.  Here one can see Mount Vesuvius in the background.  If you look to the right, what looks to be a separate peak (near the column) was actually part of the original cone of the mountain before the eruption in 79 AD.  The area between today's peak and the secondary peak is huge but from this angle you cannot tell how big it really is.  When approaching the mountain from the other side you drive through the cleft between the two.  In doing so, you see how incredibly massive the 79 AD eruption was.

After having a brief lunch break, we drove to Herculaneum.  Like Pompeii, it was covered in the eruption of 79, but by different material.  Pompeii was covered by volcanic ash and small bits of airborne lava.  Herculaneum was covered by the pyroclastic flow--a tidal wave of volcanic mud.  Because of the heat of the ash and stones falling on Pompeii, everything made of wood there burned.  In Herculaneum, the wood survived, though charred.

Because the ash covering Pompeii was easier to excavate, much more of Pompeii was uncovered (and looted of its treasure) than Herculaneum.  Roughly 90% of Herculaneum still remains underground, with the modern town of Ercolano on top of it.

Herculaneum was on the coast.  When the volcanic mud started to flow its way, people went to the boat houses next to the shore, hoping for rescue, as there was no other direction in which they could escape.  They died, trapped in the boat houses seen below and archaeologists found many skeletons, along with whatever valuables they could carry.  We know from the archaeological evidence that they died very quickly once the mud reached them.  The temperature was so hot, their brains boiled and made their skulls explode!

Herculaneum also had water delivered by aqueduct.  Here is some of the original pipe.

This is a laundry press.  The wood dates back 2,000 years and is encased in plastic now to preserve it.

Here is another example of an atrium with an impluvium.

This is a set of wooden doors that survived.  Again, you can see that they are charred, but still structurally intact.

This is the changing room in the public baths.  Note the mosaic of Triton (a sea god).

Another mosaic in the baths.

And finally, the plunge pool of cool water, to finish off one's bath in fine fashion.

We then looked at a villa with beautiful mosaics in the dining room.  These mosaics are made from bits of colored glass and have survived for 2,000 years.

Here are roof beams--charred but still intact.

This was a grain mill and bakery.  The hole in the side is where a wooden beam was inserted to turn the mill to grind the grain.

That ended our visit to Herculaneum.  We drove back to the hotel and had a few hours of down time.  At 7:00 we went to dinner and had another terrific meal.

Ciao!  A domani!