Visiting Pompeii on August 23rd

The 23rd of August in 79AD was the day before Mount Vesusvius erupted. Everyone would thought it would be all right, because they were used to having it be cloudy, and having small earthquakes here and there. So they didn't really pay attention, and did their daily business. We visited on the 23rd of August 2009, and on the 24th, my birthday, all life in Pompeii was wiped out, except for those that escaped on boats. About a 1,000 people died out of a town that was about 10,000 people at the time. On my birthday, Pompeii erupted exactly 1,930 years ago.

We saw a site that had been the city of Pompeii. So there were streets, shops, courthouses, villas, public baths, fountains. There were also statues of people that had been found in the lava. The archaologists had put plaster in to the cavities into the lava, and then excavated the lava so that the person would be exposed in plaster. Some of the people were praying to the Gods, some of them were running away, some of them were laying down, covering their heads. There was even a chained dog who had died.

There were shops that had holes in the counters, that they would put olives, fish, meat dishes to sell to people to eat. We saw a bakery, where there were stone grinding mills, and rock oven, where they would bake bread, pizza, or pastries, things that a baker would make. They had baths that were made of marble and rock, where slaves would heat the water by putting wood on the fire, and then heating the water from beneath. Some of these baths were for the public, and some of them were in private homes. One of the villas had a mosiac on the floor, of a barking dog, and over the dog it said "Cave Cana", which means "Beware of the Dog".

My favorite thing that we saw on the 23rd, was the Villa of Mysteries. It was like a maze, that had so many rooms going in and out and around two large courtyards, called atriums. They collected water off the roof that went down to the well in the atrium, and they would also let a lot of light into all of the rooms of the house. There was a wine cellar, and a wine press, that we could only see through a small hole in the wall. In the dining room, there were red frescos showing warriors fighting, gods, and some women that were that seemed to be getting ready for a party or something. Frescos are paintings that are on the walls and ceilings. The archeaologists don't really know what the women are doing and that is why the Villa of Mysteries is called the Villa of Mysteries.