Herculaneum Ruins
Today we will be touring the Herculaneum Ruins. It was a city that was also destroyed when Mt Vesuvius erupted in 79AD when Pompeii was destroyed. While the town is not as big as Pompeii, it has better preservation. It has upper stories that were preserved as well as carbonized wood, food and frescos.
This city was covered in 65 feet of Volcanic ansh annd lava and was last for many years. There were rhomers of the city for years and was discovered in the 1800’s, shortly after Pompeii. The excavation shows that it used to be closer to the water, the volcano completely covered it and extended the shoreline out further.
The first thing we saw when we arrived was the Fornici, the boat houses. They were way down deep in the excavation. They had reproduced the gates on the entrances. These warehouses contain the skeletal remains of over 300 people who perished while waiting to be rescued, but the temperatures for the eruption was too much. They were vaporized immediately. It was pretty dramatic to see.
We were then able to enter the city and walk among the ruins. The house of Neptune and Amphitrite had a vividly colored wall mosaic of the sea god and his wife. There were many frescos and mosaics still intact throughout the ruins. Many have been moved to the museum and reproductions have been put into the ruins to give prospective.
The public baths looked similar to the ones we’ve seen in Bath England. But these had remarkably well preserved black and white floor mosaics depeicting sea creatures like Triton.
Once cool thing we saw at the Bronze Hydra Fountian. It has a five headed serpent (the mythical Hydra) coiled around a tree. Each of the heads functioned as a fountian mouth that sprayed water into a cross shaped swimming pool. The fact that it survived is amazing.
There were many more interesting buildings. The amount of preserved artifacts tell the whole story of the city. There were shops, bakeries, restaruants (or public eating places.) the stories are great to hear and very interesting.
