The fabled Pompeii is a historical centerpiece and gem in Italy. The near ghostly ancient Pompeii ruins in Italy make up one of the world’s most engaging and oddly strange archaeological experiences. There are so much of the site’s value since the town was not simply blown away by Vesuvius in AD 79 in ancient times but buried under a layer of lapilli which is burning fragments of pumice stone. Although it was a fatal occurrence, the result is a remarkably well-preserved slice of ancient life.
Origins of Pompeii
Tourists can walk down Roman streets and snoop around millennia-old temples, houses, amphitheatres, shops, cafes, and even a brothel. The true origins of Pompeii are uncertain, but it seems likely that its discovery in the 7th century BC by the great Campanian Oscans. Over the next seven centuries forward, the city fell to the Greeks and the Samnites before becoming an entire Roman colony in 80 BC. In AD 62, 17 years before the Vesuvius volcano erupted, the city was initially struck by a major earthquake. Unfortunately, the damage was too widespread, and evacuation of much of the 20,000 substantial population of the city.
However, many had not returned by the time Vesuvius exploded, but over 2000 men, women and children perished nevertheless. After this catastrophic event, Pompeii went into seclusion from the public eye. In 1594, when the architect Domenico Fontana was building a canal, the architect and his team stumbled across the ruins. Proper exploration began in 1748. Pompeii’s initially had about 66 hectares, and there was an excavation of 44 hectares, which means that you will have unrestricted access to every inch of the UNESCO listed site.
Always expect to come across areas cordoned off for no apparent justifiable reason and a noticeable lack of clear signs. They encourage the investing in audio guides and guide books. Multiple maintenance work is ongoing, with discoveries and abnormal findings unearthed regularly. The findings and unearthed discoveries showed the level of advancement of the city. The city would have become a significant city of power and civilization change.
TEMPLE OF APOLLO, POMPEII
The temple of Apollo stands as the oldest structure in Pompeii, and the legendary temple’s erection site faces the city’s great forum. This infrastructural establishment pattern illustrates significant changes in the city’s architectural designs and styles. These architectural changes in structural designs occurred majorly from the early 6th century B.C. to the catastrophic moment of its rather severe destruction in 79 A.D.
The temple held the original Etruscan design, which the Greeks later amended and its expansion by the Romans with the signatory addition of a perimeter of outer columns. The preservation of many of the temple’s original bronze statues are in the National Archeological Museum of Naples.
There is also a large copy of Apollo and a designed bust of the goddess Diana standing in their original spot in ruins at Pompeii.
HOUSE OF THE VETTII
The almost mythical house of vettii, which in the west sector of the ruins of Pompeii, is one the city’s most preserved Roman villas. Although there was a renovation of the villa after the earthquake in 62 AD, it still has impressive features depicting a harmonious, fresh and appealingly unified design. These designs include an assortment of beautiful frescoes painted with black backgrounds and strongly framed in yellow and red.
The name House of Vetti was after the wealthy merchants who lived there. The design of the complex pamper the occupants and impress guests with entertainment rooms. These entertainment rooms surrounded a large central courtyard and were intricate enclosures by columns.
When inside, the aesthetics include intriguing water-spouting statues, sculptures, household artefacts, basins and lovely fountains. These sculptures, and especially some of the recovered household artefacts, are on their original contexts within the house. Hence, visitors could see what the house would have looked like if still in existence before the eruption of 79 AD overpowered it.
PLASTER CASTS OF THE CRUSHED
There was an annihilation lot of the 20,000 population that did not flee the city of Pompeii before the eruption. Hot rains of ashes entirely buried their corpses, lava raining from the sky. In 1870, Giuseppe Fiorelli invented and used a technique that required the filing of the empty spaces where the corpses had decomposed with liquid plaster. The plasters produce perfect casts of the saddening victims of the eruption. As soon as the plaster hardened, the surrounding soil was steadily removed, and you can see the figures to the full view and light.
This technique produced; casts of animals, human bodies, artefacts and objects. Unfortunately, the building initially preserved and housed suffered pervasive damage during World War II. The war caused the losing of many plastic casts. and many are now located in several places around the Pompeii ruins. You can also find some at the Archaeological Museum of Naples. The marked “Garden of the Fugitives” holds the most significant number of victims found in one place. The Garden of the Fugitives is where 13 people had sought refuge in a fruit orchard from the flying lava.
POMPEII SPECTACULA
The construction of the spectacula was around 70 BC. The amphitheater of Pompeii is still the oldest surviving Roman amphitheater ever excavated in the world. This amphitheater was also the earliest Roman amphitheater built with stone. The previously erected amphitheaters was with wood. The second Roman amphitheater built from stone was the Colosseum in Rome, created over a century after Pompeii Spectacula. The amphitheater was aptly referred to as a spectacula using the term “amphitheatrum”, which was not yet in the old vocabulary use.
The Pompeii spectacula could host about 20,000 spectators, which was equal to and the entire population of Pompeii.
In 59 AD, a violent and upsetting riot broke out between fans from Pompeii and those of a rival town, leading to the Senate banning any further games there for ten years.
VILLA DEI MISTERI
The Villa Dei Misteri means Villa of the Mysteries. Villa Dei Misteri is outside Pompeii on the road that leads down to the city’s old harbor. Unfortunately, it has become a well-preserved ruin. The Roman Villa of Mysteries features a series of wonderfully preserved frescoes that depict women’s initiation into the forbidden cult of Dionysus. Dionysus, known as the god of decadence, was also referred to as Bacchus to the Romans. The mysteries here refer to this secret initiation rite forbidden in Pompeii.
The villa de misteri on a rich red background; the most unbelievable discovery was the beautify excavation of the paintings with a remarkable degree of clarity and lustrous detailing, were still preserved.
The villa’s large outdoor terrace and intriguingly designed rooms show how impressive the home and gardens were.
FORUM OF POMPEII
The Forum was the symbolic center of ancient Pompeii. The Forum is an expansive rectangular open area that serves as the city’s cultural, political, civilisation and commercial core. In addition, the Forum was the site of Pompeii’s court and its marketplace, bathhouses and temples. The courthouse, known as the basilica, had the replica cross-shaped floor pattern as a new architectural plan adopted later adopted for Christian churches.
Although only a few of the columns from the two-storey colonnades that had flanked the open area remain, the buildings lie in ruins. The exquisitely grand scale of the space is still impressive and shows how lavish the people were. When you are here, it becomes easy to imagine the heavy hustle and bustle of activities that occurred here almost daily during the glorious height of Pompeii as a city.
HOUSE OF THE FAUN
The largest private villas in Pompeii is the house of the faun. The House of the Faun takes an entire city block. The villa lies in this massive structure where archaeologists discovered Pompeii’s greatest artistic treasures.
These exotic artistic treasures include; the Alexander Mosaic, which portrays Alexander the Great taking up arms against Darius III of Persia. The naming of the house was after the evacuation of yet another famous find – a bronze statue of a faun.
These remarkable recoveries are now on display at the National Archeological Museum of Naples in Italy. The most impressive artwork you would find on-site is a marble floor uniquely set in a complex geometric pattern.
POMPEII THERMAL BATHS
Public bathhouses were a common feature in every city of the Romans, from the biggest to the smallest city in the Roman Empire. Although a few houses owned private baths.
The public baths (THERMAE) with significant uniqueness. The public baths of Pompeii served all social classes, not excluding the slaves, although men and women constantly bathed separately.
These thermae’s were important place for people to meet and mingle apart from washing. The design of the heating rooms was to work by running heated water through the tiny open cavities in the wall.
Pompeii had three significant public baths: The Forum, The Stabian and Central Baths. The Stabian Baths are the oldest preserved public baths all over the Roman Empire. The Forum Baths are near the Forum, the city’s centre. The Forum Baths are the smallest public baths in Pompeii. Also, the forum baths are usually the most elaborately decorated.
The Central Baths were still being completed and were unfinished when the Vesuvius volcano erupted in 79 AD.
There was single baths sections for males and females; therefore, men and women had separate and different bathing hours. Lastly, remember to book your flights and hotels here.
