Standing in the middle of the forum in Pompeii, 1900 years after the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, I try to visualize what the last day of the city must have been like. The Forum would have been bustling with trade, the rich enjoying themselves at the Stabian Baths, ovens emitting the aromas of freshly baked breads, children laughing in play and then....Vesuvius erupts. It is obvious the citizens of Pompeii were not prepared for the disaster that followed as you see plates encrusted to tables, loaves of bread encased in ash and human shapes reacting in shock and horror. A thriving city gone in a matter of hours.
The first thing I noticed, on arrival, was how close Mt. Vesuvius was. It loomed over Pompeii as if threatening another outpouring of lava at the slightest sign of debauchery. Looking around the city, I was amazed as how well-preserved it was. That comes with being buried beneath a rain of ash and cinders.
Originally, Pompeii was surrounded by city walls to protect it in times of war but after the establishment of peace under Augustus, other buildings grew up on the outer walls. The best preserved gate was the Porta Marina (facing the sea) and it led straight through to the city center, the Forum. Even today, you can appreciate how well-planned the city was. Two main roads, the Via Dell'Abondanza and the Via di Nola runs through the city, connecting all the principal centers. Streets that had two stepping stones (round stones raised to the height of the curbs) were one way streets because only one chariot can pass through and those with three stepping stones were two way streets. How cool is that? We were also told that another reason for the stepping stones is for crossing because when it rained, the sewage ran into the streets so the only way to cross was by using the stepping stones. Eww!
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At the site, I bought a guidebook with reconstructions of the city called "Pompeii/Herculaneum - Past and Present" published by Vision, Roma and it is a great way of visualizing the original architecture of the city compared to what was still standing. I recommend you get a copy when you are there.
Temple of Apollo. Apollo, the Sun God, was one of the many gods worshipped by the Pompeiians. The temple built for him dates back to 2nd Century and consists of an enclosing wall with porticoes on three sides. The temple itself stood at the back of the courtyard, with steps leading up to the podium. Before the eruption, the flooring of the podium was an opulent lozenge-and-meander pattern made from colored stones and slate. All that is left now are the steps and the bare podium with a couple of columns still standing. The porticoes surrounding the temple were in better condition, traces of the wall paintings on the facades still evident. Some of the statues that once stood along the porticoes had been restored and kept in storage area where they can viewed.
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Click here to see the old and the new Temple of Apollo
The Forum. The Forum was the main meeting place and rightfully located in the center of the city with main streets leading to it. It was once surrounded by public buildings and adorned with monuments. Here, the people of Pompeii would gather to shop, worship or participate in games and spectacles. It comprises of a huge rectangular piazza with a paving of travertine slabs, surrounded by porticoes on three sides. Within the piazza was a platform for orators and statues of the Imperial Family. Today, only the bases of the structures remain and the piazza is now a field of grass but enough to envision it in its past glory. And if you close your eyes, you can almost hear arguments being made from the platform and imagine the hustle and bustle of business taking place in this very spot, centuries ago.
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Click here to see the old and the new Pompeii Forum
The houses of the noblemen. Even in their current state of disrepair, you can still conjure up the magnificence of the homes they once were. The porticos open up into an inner courtyard, many with a shallow pool. The rim of the pool were adorned with shiny tiles (the name escapes me) which shone brilliantly in the moonlight. Our guide said that this is so that when the master returns home, drunk from a wild night at the tavern, these bright tiles guide him around the pool so he does not fall in. Inside, the luxury of the dwellings was evident in the atrium, the interior garden and the frescoes on the wall. These paintings of greek gods and depictions of history were surprisingly intact. It was a little chipped and faded in places but still astounding, considering that it had survived the ravages of time, an earthquake and a volcanic eruption.
The Bakery. This bakery was the most well-preserved areas in the city. The millstones were virtually intact. It consisted of a conical stone standing on a circular stone base. A second biconical stone rotates around the conical stone. Grain was poured into the hollow of this stone and when the stone was turned, it was ground into flour and came out the bottom. Not entirely ancient as people are still doing that in some parts of the world. The wood-burning oven looks very similar to those pizza ovens in rustic restaurants. The archaeologists even found carbonized loaves of bread here which indicates that it was business usual before the disaster struck.
The Stabian Baths. In contrast with their French neighbors, the Romans loved baths. And they did it in style. The Stabian Baths was more like a luxury spa with men and women sections, both richly adorned in colored stucco work. The main entrance lead to a large palaestra, an area for exercises. The interior consisted of small rooms for individual bathers which had a heated plunge bath. Now, get this. The vestibule led to an apodyterium (a changing room) a frigidarium (a cold pool) for cold plunges, a tepidarium (a warmer pool) and a calidarium (a hot pool), an apsed hall with a bath for soaking and a circular basin for washing. As tragic as their end was, the Pompeiians knew how to live life.
The Brothel. One of the more interesting structures we visited was the brothel. It was a 2-storey building containing 10 cubicles with built-in beds. Over each door, there was an erotic painting, karma sutra-like. Our guide told us that these were not paintings to dress up the brothel but were actually a menu of the different sexual services being offered. Customers would browse the paintings, pick one and then pay the price for that service. Ingenious, huh?
People frozen in time. The relics that were excavated by archaeologists as early as 1700s, gave us a sense of how their lives ended. Many inhabitants died, victims of their own hesitation and of the poisonous fumes. Besides the famous image of a crouched man holding his nose, there were those sprawled on the ground, their faces twisted and others huddled with their children. Despite the realism of their expressions, these are not preservations of real people but their plaster imprints. The technique of recovering their shapes was by pouring plaster into the ash molds after their bodies had decomposed. Some, we were told still had the skeleton inside the plaster. It was like seeing a National Geographic photo in 3-D - a somber moment.
Any description of Pompeii falls short of actually being there. Despite spending a full day there, I don't believe I absorbed even half of what the city is. It is definitely worth a second visit.
The houses of the noblemen. Even in their current state of disrepair, you can still conjure up the magnificence of the homes they once were. The porticos open up into an inner courtyard, many with a shallow pool. The rim of the pool were adorned with shiny tiles (the name escapes me) which shone brilliantly in the moonlight. Our guide said that this is so that when the master returns home, drunk from a wild night at the tavern, these bright tiles guide him around the pool so he does not fall in. Inside, the luxury of the dwellings was evident in the atrium, the interior garden and the frescoes on the wall. These paintings of greek gods and depictions of history were surprisingly intact. It was a little chipped and faded in places but still astounding, considering that it had survived the ravages of time, an earthquake and a volcanic eruption.
The Bakery. This bakery was the most well-preserved areas in the city. The millstones were virtually intact. It consisted of a conical stone standing on a circular stone base. A second biconical stone rotates around the conical stone. Grain was poured into the hollow of this stone and when the stone was turned, it was ground into flour and came out the bottom. Not entirely ancient as people are still doing that in some parts of the world. The wood-burning oven looks very similar to those pizza ovens in rustic restaurants. The archaeologists even found carbonized loaves of bread here which indicates that it was business usual before the disaster struck.
The Brothel. One of the more interesting structures we visited was the brothel. It was a 2-storey building containing 10 cubicles with built-in beds. Over each door, there was an erotic painting, karma sutra-like. Our guide told us that these were not paintings to dress up the brothel but were actually a menu of the different sexual services being offered. Customers would browse the paintings, pick one and then pay the price for that service. Ingenious, huh?
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