Pompeii and Mt. Vesuvius

Another place that was on our highlight list of must see places was the ruins of the city of Pompeii, which lies at the base of Mt. Vesuvius. These ruins give us some of the best understanding of what towns and cities were really like in ancient times since it was preserved under deep layers of ash after the famous eruption of the Mt. Vesuvius volcano in 79 AD after 1500 years of dormancy.

C & R gaze at a courtyard in ancient Pompeii

We had sailed into the port of Naples and were met by a guide that turned out to be Chris' favorite (so far!). Christobal seemed to really know his Pompeii history and talked almost non-stop for the two hours it took for us to see the highlights of this site. He described the everyday life of the people, the day of the eruption and the archaeological recovery process. We were all surprised at the size of the city. It was much bigger than we had thought it would be.

Examining a water public water basin

Looking at illustrations on a 2000-year-old wall

We learned a lot. There are (in display cases) forms of humans and animals that were almost instantaneously killed when the heat and gasses took over the town. We (like many others) believed that these forms in the cases were petrified into their present form when the destruction occurred. Our guide explained, however, that the actual human (or animal) remains had long ago disappeared but had been surrounded by the ash so that a chamber or open space still existed where the body had lain. The ash hardened and when the archaeologists began to excavate the site, they began to discover the empty mold-shaped chambers. They would open up just a few holes in the top of each and then fill the from the top with plaster. This then hardened and they were left with the forms we were able to see. Pretty ingenious!

We could see forms of human and animal victims

Another thing that we were surprised to discover was that nearly 1/3 of the entire known site of Pompeii has never been excavated. In a very forward-thinking decision, those who had control over the uncovering of the site, though they knew there were parts that might yield much information and were still buried, felt that these other parts of the city should be left as is in case Mt. Vesuvius erupted one again sometime in the future. That eruption could create a disaster for area and lava could destroy what has currently been unearthed. In that case. the area that has never been excavated (which would probably be left unaffected by another eruption) would be left for future generations to uncover and learn from.