This is a disaster site and has been brought alive to the present generation by some painstaking work undertaken by the geologists and may consider ourselves lucky to witness the remains of an once extravagant city which otherwise would ’ve been simply buried , layers under the earth.Pompeii is present along the Bay of Naples in south Italy , a few miles south of Mount Vesuvious, between Herculaneum and Stabiae. As the history goes, this place was first devastated by an earthquake and ravaged by the spewing lava from the nearby Mt.Vesuvius, a few years later , with tens of thousands of inhabitants losing their lives , in , believe it or not 79 AD, which I can’t even think of!!
This place was simply lost forever , and somehow accidentally excavated in early 19th century and later on has been the playground for geologists and the result is today, u can simply feel as though u r walking in some ghost town, with every wall, pavement , a piece of metal , bearing some story connected with it.This excavated site extends for many Kms in radius and gives u an errie feeling as u walk past every semi destroyed houses, roads , city squares, church, amphitheatre , villas bearing frescoes, some exquiste wall paintaings, mosiacs , pavements .One thing that constantly amazed me as I brushed past each one of them was , as to how did it remain protected for so many years inspite of such a devasting volcano , to remind u again I am talking of remains of 79 AD .God knows the effort that may ’ve gone behind bringing this buried town alive by geologists.
Some of the interesting locations in this site are public and private baths, a typical feature of Roman towns, the wall that encircled the town, amphitheater that accommodated twenty thousand spectators who came to watch gladitorial combat, theatre,
luxurious private residences called villas with balconies( one of the villas formed a plan for the famous Paul Getty Museum at Malibu California. ).
It is said that, the main reason for such remarkable degree of preservation was due to showers of wet ashes and cinders that accompanied the eruption formed a hermetic seal about the town, preserving many structures. In addition, remnants of some of the 2000 victims of the disaster were found in the ruins of Pompeii, including several gladiators who had been placed in chains to prevent them from escaping or committing suicide. Ashes, mixed with rain, had settled around the bodies in molds that remained after the bodies themselves had turned to dust. Liquid plaster was poured into some of these molds by the excavators, and the forms of the bodies have thereby been preserved; some of these figures are exhibited in the museum erected at Pompeii near the Porta Marina, one of the eight gates of the city.Most of the movable objects that were found, and some of the best-executed wall paintings and floor mosaics, have been removed to the nearby National Museum in Naples.
It is said that this place is one of the geological wonders in the world and truely it stands testimony to a person even like me, who doesnt ’ve an iota of knowledge regarding this subject.It is said that some of the advanced techniques like digital photogrammetry to document the geometry and construction of key areas of the building, plus three dimensional modelling to depict the state of the building in various states of damage and repair has been used.
I had been here at the peak of Italian summer and this place was damn sweltering hot , dusty and not a single tree to provide u any shade , ofcourse there were many abondoned century old errie houses where I could ’ve taken refuge.All in all an interesting place to visit , especially if some person or guide is along with u who can explain things , else many finer points may be lost .But personally not a must visit place , if u r a first time visitor to Italy , bcoz there r so many beautiful romantic places to cover especially in Northern Alpine regions(read my revu on Mt.Blanc ’n Italian-Swiss alps) or in nearby exotic Mediterranean islands or the Riviera, but if u r near Naples ’n ’ve some time to spare can surely hop in here.