Visiting Pompeii, the city destroyed by Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE, has always been high on my list of things to see and it didn’t disappoint.
The Nuceria Gate was our welcome to Pompeii.
The first excavations at Pompeii occurred in 1748, with archaeological work continuing to this day. There is still a significant portion of the site that remains unexcavated so who knows what they will discover here in the future?
A mural from Termopolium of Asellina, it was an ancient restaurant or tavern in Pompeii.
There are many paintings and murals in Pompeii but I fear they are fading and not much is being done to protect them.
The paintings are actually frescoes. Fresco is a technique of mural painting with freshly laid lime plaster. Water is used with dry-powder colored pigment to merge with the plaster, and when the plaster drys, the painting becomes an integral part of the wall.
Yes there are preserved bodies that you can see. To create the preserve the bodies, plaster was poured into soft cavities in the ash. These cavities were the outlines of bodies, and they retained their forms despite the soft tissue decomposing over time. The plaster filled in the spaces formerly occupied by soft tissue.
This is known as The Fountain of Plenty. There is a faucet that comes out of her mouth that carried water to citizens of Pompeii. It’s an amazing place. We had a guide who gave us a lot of details and I would highly recommend getting one or you may just walk by a lot of interesting details. It takes a full day to see everything.
