By now anyone who is reading this blog must have heard of the tragic story of Pompei. The city which got buried under a massive volcano eruption: But how did this happen?
Well, back then, people didn’t have a solid understanding of volcanoes, so when smoke started billowing from their nearby “mountain”, they thought it was a message from Zeus, the king of the gods. However, they soon realized that this wasn’t the case. It was 79AD when the earth suddenly began to shake. This seemed normal since they were beginning to experience them frequently. It was only a few minutes later when the volcano roared as magma and smoke started to explore out from the top. Stupidly for the people in Pompei, they had a long time to evacuate, but their lack of knowledge proved to be their demise. It was only when the hot ash started to pour down onto the streets that they began to panic. The people desperately tried to please the gods, but all their efforts were to no avail. The remaining people were buried alive, with their last moments full of bitterness towards the gods. There is a quote from one of the survivors that states that at the time, people were wondering if even their beloved god was real. If so then how could they wrong their worshipers so wrongly? The last remains of Pompeii were then buried under 16 meters of ash, and an additional layer of soil over the centuries lay preserved.
It was only in the 16th century that scientists finally made the discovery of the lost city. However, to this day they have not yet fully uncovered the city, and if you go there now you are able to see them work in real-time. Since the ash had preserved everything so well, people were able to discover all sorts of things, including the remnants of people. There were no bones, but instead, there were mysterious humanoid pockets in the ash which were later discovered to be people. Essentially, the actual person was engulfed in ash and after a few centuries later all that remained was the gap where they used to be. I was impressed by their accurate replica of what a home would have looked like. The detailed tiles and the… questionable art were all interesting as they provided a glimpse back into the past. Not only the house, but the whole city was open to the public, so we were able to walk around up close. You could see the age of the city by the deep indents where the carriages used to move, and small things like that really immersed you in the history of the place.
I personally can’t recommend this place more, and since the volcano is rumored to erupt soon again, you should visit it now or never. With that, I’ll see you in Rome.