More Pompeii

Pompeii: a town of thousands, already 800 years old when Christ walked the earth, with theatres, stadiums, roads, sidewalks, plumbing, sewage management, even 'crosswalks'. A new Pompeii sits outside the old and we lunched there before going to the dig site. The new town is like any other small Italian town, except for the sleeping monster right behind it.

The roman road in Pompeii was no place for human feet: it was part of the sewer system. Notice the raised, oval stones rising out of the road? crosswalks! at the same elevation as the sidewalks. The wheels of carts and their draw horses passed between, their axles clearing the tops. Notice the grooves in the road stones? worn from the iron or bronze 'tire' of the wooden wheels. Our guide likened the conestoga wagon wheel to the ancient design (nothing new under the sun, he reminded many times)




Those stones and everything else are a rare and unique time capsule because they've remained in place for thousands of years, unlike most other places where the building materials were 'retasked' (eg: much of the colosseum became Papal basilica)


Their neighborhoods are marked at the perimeters by tile insets such as this; and street addresses on every place, all well preserved by Vesuvius' residue. (reportedly, 2/3 of the mountain blew off, plus the ash and pumice)










Many of the remaining homes were thoroughly decorated. Our guide (a college professor) informed that all efforts to replicate the pigmentations have failed - possibly because plants used originally are extinct.













Plumbing. A terra cotta pipe with a flange
connection much like those used today.












A typical void-casting: the individual appears to be shielding his breathing, perhaps using a cloth as a filter, but in vain since the toxic, volcanic gasses would have displaced any breathable air.











And finally, Vesuvuis; sleeping now, but awake only about 50 years ago, though not in full fury like 79AD. The view is from the Forum, a central square surrounded by 'municipal' buildings. The peaks seen here are not different hills, but remnant sub-peaks: imagine the outer-most slopes coming to one peak to get an idea of how much taller Vesuvuis originally was.