Pompeii, Destroyed by a Volcano

This artist rendition of the "Last Day" of Pompeii is not completely accurate. Mt. Vesuvius is really about 6 miles from the city of Pompeii. But it is neat to see the buildings surrounding the forum. Photo from Wikipedia. For more details click on this link.

It was another awesome day to take pictures... great clouds constantly changing. A perfect day to visit the ruins of Pompeii. This city was destroyed and buried under 13-20 feet of ash and pumice in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.

Upon arrival at this UNESCO World Heritage Site we stood around for a couple of hours... hoping that someone would open the gates.  The staff here was striking for not getting paid for over a year!! However around noon the police came and ordered them to open the gates and we were allowed in.




Imagine 5-10,000 people all decending on this attraction at once... it was pretty crowded. And we now had only had 90 minutes to try to see what we could on this huge 163-acre city of ruins before our bus takes us back to our ship.

There were lots of streets of just ruined houses.

They estimated that 20,000 people lost their lives when the volcano hit.

Here's a street map of Pompeii.  The coloured streets are the main arteries.

Large flat stones paved the streets. Notice the "crosswalk" in the centre near the top.

When it rained the streets became the storm drainage system. The space between the stones also allowed horse drawn carriages to still drive down the street.

These large flat stones at the intersections let the people cross the "river" and not get their feet wet.

The Temple of Apollo was the focal point of the forum...

This artists rendering shows a possibility of how the Temple of Apollo looked, surrounded by two rows of columns... with the back wall in veneered marble.

This is what remains of the columns...

Pretty cool how the columns are made of a large number of smaller pre-fabricated stones cemented together in a circle around a central solid column.  Seeing the mortar holding these stones together made me ask... "When was cement first invented?" This artifact is well over 2,000 years old.

Today's Portland cement was first developed by Joesph Aspdin, a British stone mason, in 1824... and he was the first to patent it.  But there is no doubt other formulas for making mortar.  The Romans learned how to use lime mixed with brick dust or sand.

It was such a perfect day to be taking photos... and Vesuvius was being entertained by fluffy 'mammary' clouds. That's my word for these voluptuous cumulus clouds.

Many of the columns were designed and made in sections to make production and installation easier.

There were lots of columns...

And a variety of capitals.

Was this a food service kitchen facing the street?  Could this be the "McDonalds" of it's day. Each pot likely filled with something.  What could it be?

These are not shallow pots.  It looks to me that this was what Wikipedia calls a theropolium.  It is believed they were not used for hot foods, as cleaning would be difficult.  But likely were used for dry foods like nuts or seeds and grains.

A Roman aqueduct provided water for more than 25 street fountains, at least four public bath houses as well as a large number of private houses and businesses.  This brass faucet is no doubt a modern solution, as the old aqueduct is "out of order."

This large bath was inside a building.  It had seating around the outside... the "hot tub" of the day.

There was more than one amphitheatre in Pompeii. In fact there are three.

This was the smallest one... and it was simply beautiful.

This tour guide was explaining to his small audience how good the acoustics were here.

This larger theatre was absolutely wonderful.

The design of this amphitheatre has been praised for it's simplicity... and especially for traffic flow.

Entrance and exit from the amphitheatre is either from the top or the bottom...

and both come out at ground level.

We did not realize until I was doing research for this blog post that there was one more HUGE amphitheatre in Pompeii... and it was in this largest amphitheatre that Pink Floyd made a feature film production in 1972.  Check out the whole story of Pink Floyd Live at Pompeii.



This is one song... Echos... only 5 minutes.

The whole two hour production is posted on YouTube and is totally awesome.  Along with the music are scenes taken from the ruins at Pompeii as well as many famous works of art.  It is kind of like having the Pink Floyd band as background music to the historic Pompeii artifacts.

Thanks to Wikipedia I can show you a picture of this largest amphitheatre.

Credit: Karl Brullov - The Last Day of Pompeii - Google Art Project

How did the people of Pompeii die? The results of a study published in 2010 show that exposure to at least 250 degrees Celsius hot surges at a distance of six miles from the vent was sufficient to cause instant death... even if people were sheltered within buildings.

During early excavations of the site, occasional voids in the ash layer had been found that contained human remains.  The archaeologist Fiorelli realized these were spaces left by the decomposed bodies and so devised the technique of injecting plaster into them to recreate the forms of Vesuvius's victims.

"I am ready to meet my Maker.  Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter." 
-Winston Churchill

Tuzigoot National Monument... near Flagstaff, Az.

This morning we were the first to show up at this National Monument... like 8:05 AM.

Where did they get this name from?  Apparently Tuzigoot means "crooked water" in Apache... which refers to the winding Verde River nearby.  There is lots of other cool information on this Wikipedia site.

In the Visitors Centre I saw this poster on the wall... and I wanted to know where this photo taken from... and how could I get one like it?  What a great photo!

The attendant told me that the mayor of Clarkdale, Doug Von Gausig, took that photo from his residence on the hill across the Verde River.  Since it was private property, it was unlikely we would be able to get a photo just like that one.  You can see by the colour of the sunlight that this shot was taken early after sunrise.

So, I asked if there might be another place I might be able to get a long shot of these ruins?  She told me that we might get it if we went to the Dead Horse State Park... which we did after.  My shot is not nearly as dramatic.  The sun was higher and not as yellow... but it does give one a good idea of the scope and magnitude of this ancient 110-room pueblo apparently built in the late 1,300's by the Sinagua people.

At first I was blown away at the quality of these ruins... all done with stone and mortar that had lasted around 600 years.  That is Shirley in the red top in the distance.

And then we saw where workmen had left their tools... three heavy hammers with chisels, etc.

They had excellent plaques around the site telling about the history and the people.  On this plaque they talk about how over time the original mortar eroded, causing the roofs and walls to collapse.  rubble filled the rooms burying and protecting lower wall sections and room floors, including features like hearths and post holes from timbers supporting the roofs.  When archaeologists removed the debris they made every effort to reconstruct the rooms using modern protective measures, including cementing walls...

adding drains to keep water from standing in the rooms, and covering the floor features with dirt.

So bottom line, this place has been totally rebuilt over the years using best efforts to capture the feeling of the original dwellings.

It is a phenomenal archeological site... and as one wanders around this place today you cannot help but think of how awesome it must have been to live in this castle on a hill top, overlooking the Verde River below.  Might this have been looked upon as a "Marriott Residence Inn" or a "Hyatt Regency" in it's day?

There were numerous tools for food preparation.  The trough like "Cusinart" is called mano and metate... and it was used for grinding corn.  The mortar and pestle was used for wheat and grains.  Throughout this site we saw a plentiful variety of these tools.

Shirley and I went thru the room inside this upper most section of the ruins.  This may have been where the chief lived... kind of like the "presidential suite!"  I think if I lived here I would have made sure it had some windows to enjoy the view from this prominent location.

Inside central posts supported a nearly flat roof.  Using flash photography we were able to capture the feeling inside this windowless dark place.

The roof detail shows using beams to support cross members, which in turn carried smaller sticks on which mortar or cement might have been used for a roof top patio or lookout.

From this pinnacle on the property one can see in every direction... an excellent place to early spot any attacking enemies.  Today we look across the river at the mayor of Clarkdale's home on the ridge.

Or at the Blazin M Ranch to the south-east. Check out their link for fun and fixin's.  This also would be a great spot to take an early morning photo of Tuzigoot.

Looking to the west in the 1940's this large field was a tailings pond for copper mining...

photo by Shirley

and further west on the hillside is evidence of current mining activity.

photo by Shirley

You almost have to be here to get a feeling of the magnitude and scale of this pueblo.  110 rooms is a huge development.

People come here from all over the United States...

And Australia and Europe.  In fact, after we left this place and stopped at the Tourist Information in Cottonwood, we ran into a couple visiting here from Goerlitz, Germany.  You have to see Shirley's post for today for all the amazing details.

Today men have built "monuments" all over the United States.  Some for high and noble purposes... and others for selfish reasons.

"New York City is a great monument to the power of money and greed... a race for rent." -Frank Lloyd Wright