Naples part X: Pompeii

The highlight of the trip was the tour of ancient Pompeii. I had been once before, briefly, in 2005 but wanted to study the place more thoroughly. When I got there I didn't actually get to see nearly as much as I had wanted to, I was simply too tired and maybe suffering from old ruins overload, after seeing Herculaneum and the Naples Archeology Museum earlier. Anyway, I got in a shitload of pics to share with you, dear readers (both of you!) and that's what counts. All Pompeii pics here.

The plaster casts of the dead are truly a sight to behold. Normally you'd only find skeletons but at Pompeii these were long gone. What remained were the hollows where they had once been, and it is these you can see today.


Scientists have disagreed on the cause of death, but the generally accepted theory now is that most of them died from heat, not from suffocation.


It's still one helluva way to go.


After death the people, animals and buildings were buried in up to 25 meters of ashes, pumice and soil. That's 82 feet.


"...not a cell is left the God, no roof, no cover/In his hand the prophet laurel flowers no more..." (εἴπατε τῷ βασιλῆϊ, χαμαὶ πέσε δαίδαλος αὐλά·.οὐκέτι φοῖβος ἔχει καλύβαν, οὐ μάντιδα δάφνην,.οὐ παγάν λαλέουσαν · ἀπέσβετο καὶ λάλον ὕδωρ.)


This pic was taken in the whorehouse. The ancient Romans liked their hanky panky.


The remains of a temple to Venus.


The remains of a temple dedicated to the emperor Vespasian, my definite favorite of all ancient characters. He died a few months before Pompeii was buried.


The landscape around Pompeii is stunning, if you can overlook the squalor that is modern Italy.