Wednesday 9 November 2011

The sin city of Pompeii destroyed by the Vesuvius volcano

Pompeii was a large city of the Roman Empire with around 20.000 inhabitants, which is located approximately 10 km from the Vesuvius. The Romans living here did not know Vesuvius was a volcano because it looked like a mountain. The crater was not visible and the mountain had a peak of more than 2.000m high. Everything above the crater which is now at 1281m was blow away by a huge explosion. The city was completely covered by ashes in the year 79 when the volcano erupted. It seems that every creature that lived in this area was struck by a cloud of extreme heat of above 500 degrees Celsius and died in extreme conditions. Pompeii was covered under a layer of ashes which was meters high. The town has been brought back to the surface by archaeologists and you can walk in the streets, see the remains of shops, restaurants, sport centres, villas, theatres, bathing houses… We even visited a house of pleasure, where public women offered their services to men, the beds were very small and from stone. Nowadays, we should not complain about our mattresses being too hard. There are still original wall paintings of the services prostitutes were offering. Many travellers couldn’t read or spoke other languages, communicating was difficult, the paintings provided a solution for these problems. It was a special experience, to visit this house. In order to find the brothel, the Romans carved images of a phallus on the roads showing the right direction. Some think the Gods destroyed Pompeii because it was a town of sex and sins. By the way, the new city of Pompeii is a real town where currently 25.000 people live, it is partially build on the remains of the destroyed Pompeii but this was only discovered lately.

Pompeii was een grootstad van het Romeinse Rijk met ongeveer 20.000 inwoners, en ligt op een afstand van 10km van de Vesuvius. De Romeinen die hier woonden wisten niet dat dit een vulkaan was, het zag er uit als een gewone berg. De krater was niet zichtbaar en de berg had een piek van boven de 2.000 meter. Nu zien we duidelijk de krater op een hoogte van 1281 meter, de volledige top van de berg werd weggeblazen door een explosie van de vulkaanuitbarsting in het jaar 79. Het lijkt erop dat alle levende wezens die in deze streek verbleven werden getroffen door een hete lucht golf van meer dan 500 graden en stierven onder verschrikkelijke condities. De stad werd bedolven onder een laag as van verschillende meters hoog. De stad is nu terug opgegraven door archeologen en je kan door de straten van weleer wandelen waar je de overblijfselen ziet van winkels, restaurants, sportcentra, villa’s, theaters, badhuizen... We hebben ook een huis van plezier bezocht, waar publieke vrouwen hun diensten aanboden aan mannen. De bedden waren klein en van steen!!! Wij durven heden ten dage klagen over harde matrassen. Er zijn hier nog steeds muurschilderijen die de diensten uitbeelden die prostituees aanbieden. Vele reizigers kenden de taal niet en dit was de enige wijze waarop hun wensen duidelijk gemaakt konden worden. Het was een speciale ervaring hier binnen te gaan. Om de reizigers te helpen de bordelen te vinden, werden tekeningen van fallussen door Romeinen gekerfd in de bestrating. Deze wezen de juiste richting aan. Sommigen denken dat de Goden deze stad hebben vernietigd omwille van de seks en zonden die hier gepleegd werden. Tussen haakjes, de hedendaagse stad van Pompeii ligt hier ook, heeft ongeveer 25.000 inwoners en is gedeeltelijk gebouwd op de ruïnes van het oude Pompeii, maar dit heeft men slechts recent ontdekt..

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11 comments:

  1. Good grief, what a story!! I knew about Pompeii, but not these details. And I did not know how wicked they were, either. Your pictures show us very well. The second one would be the amphitheater? And what is the carving of the head that looks like it is screaming?

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  2. El viajar és cultura y al hacer buenas fotografias
    nos haace rercordar nuestro viaje.
    Saludos

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  3. Filip: Certainly enjoyed your trip to this famous city, thanks for sharing your photos.

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  4. I read and watched documentaries about this place before... Wow, really nice if can visit it myself :D

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  5. The history in this place is just amazing !

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  6. Das war ein sehr interessanter Ausflug...du zeigst imposante Bauwerke mit tollen Details....es ist sicher eine Reise wert...sehr schöne Fotos...
    LG: Karin

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  7. Nicely documented. I wasn't aware there are still so many standing structures nor did I know there is a New Pompeii.

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  8. Oh, Filip - You may get more hits on this than any other post because you've used "prostitution" as a label. I find that your photos of the old city tell a story of heat, dust, and ruin. And, no - I'll keep my own bed and soft pillow, thank you!

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  9. this should be really interesting to visit, I have seen a lot of movies depicting the destiny of Pompei...thanks for showing what is left! Just by watching the pics I am getting warm:-)))

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  10. Fascinating shots Filip! I took probably 300 photos the day we were there, so some of mine look just like yours. See you did post a shot of that bordello bed.. it did not look like a very inviting place to be to me. The view of the lives of these people definitely showed a very hedonistic people, and they did come to such a quick end. Believe this was totally buried until 1749. Pretty amazing post here, and it was an incredible place to visit.

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