Europe Travel Photo of the Week

Travel Photo of the Week 13

The main square where the government buildings were located, with Mt Vesuvius at the background

Up until two days before the scheduled visit, I was so sure Pompeii was a person. I had in mind that we will see some monument of a person and display of his great works. When I was told that it’s a place, despondently all I could say was “Oh, it sounded like a guy’s name.”
So I read a bit about it and here’s what I found out. Pompeii was an ancient Roman city which was buried in 4-6 meters of ash and pumice (a type of volcanic rock) when a volcano called Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD.
The disaster remained in people’s minds but was eventually forgotten until an exploration of the ancient site was conducted. The ruined city remained frozen in time until it was discovered by a surveying engineer in 1748.
The buried buildings which were designed only to last for a few decades remained standing for 2000 years. Pompeii as an archaeological site is the longest continually excavated site in the world, but even after hundreds of years of work, about a third of the city still lies buried.
We spent a few hours exploring the area and it was amazing to see and have a bit of an idea what Roman city-life was like 2000 years ago.
Other posts about ITALY:
LAKE COMO – day trip and transport strike (1 of 2)
LAKE COMO – day trip and transport strike (2 of 2)
A night out in VENICE
VENICE (1 of 3): A city with no cars – visited during the Regata Storica
VENICE (2 of 3): St Mark’s Square –Where everyone goes
VENICE (3 of 3): Gelatos and Masks
Travel Photo of the Week 8
Travel Photo of the Week 13—>You are here
Text & Photos by Alicia Davis

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