Where is Pompeii?

The sudden eruption of Mount Vesuvius made Pompeii and Herculaneum in ancient Rome disappear into lava and volcanic ash. Since then, these two bustling cities have left people's sight and their names have gradually been forgotten. 1600 years later, these two cities, which were frozen by disasters, came to light again and became "living fossils" to reproduce the social life of ancient Romans.

Pompeii and Herculaneum are 8 kilometers apart, located at the foot of Mount Vesuvius in the southeast of Naples, Italy.

Pompeii was founded in the 6th century BC, gradually influenced by Roman forces in the 4th century BC, and merged with Herculaneum to form Rome in 89 BC. Because it is close to the bay, sunny and pleasant climate, it quickly attracted the dignitaries and rich people in Rome. They have built luxurious amusement places and luxury houses here, and the scale of the city is expanding and the market is booming. In August 79 AD, Vesuvius continuously emitted white smoke, which was a precursor of volcanic eruption. Residents who are accustomed to a peaceful and stable life will not care too much. They live and work as usual. This phenomenon often appeared here before, but it disappeared after a while. But this time, the residents of these two cities never dreamed that bad luck would befall them. On August 24th, residents of the two cities started their day as usual. At noon, a devastating disaster came. With the deafening explosion, the lava from Mount Vesuvius soared into the sky, and the black smoke that covered the sky came at people with boiling volcanic ash. In an instant, the sky was dark and the earth shook. After that, the volcanic eruption caused heavy rain, which swept away the stones, sediment and volcanic ash on the mountain, forming a huge debris flow, rolling down the mountain and rushing to the foothills plain. Pliny Jr., the witness of the catastrophe (Pliny Sr's nephew), wrote a letter to Tacitus six years later, vividly describing the scene when the volcano erupted: "A large cedar-like dark cloud suddenly appeared on the horizon, and a huge flame was burning. The sky is getting dark and the flames are particularly dazzling. Earthquakes are frequent, and we dare not go out, because the burning rubble falls from the sky like hail ... "Pliny Jr. experienced this feeling in another city 20 kilometers away from Pompeii, while the residents of Pompeii and Herculaneum near the volcano can imagine the feeling.

When the earth cooled, Pompeii and Herculaneum, two once prosperous cities, were buried by fiery magma, volcanic ash and mudslides, and their history came to an abrupt end. Since then, Vesuvius erupted several times in 203, 305, 472 and 5 12. Due to the repeated coverage of volcanic ash and lava, the underground ancient city was buried deeper, and future generations could no longer see any traces of the ancient city from the ground. For thousands of years, people only know that there are two ancient cities from the history of ancient books and folklore, but where and what they are is always a mystery.

Years are not alive, the four seasons are flowing, and in a blink of an eye 1600 years have passed. An accidental discovery brought the long-forgotten ancient city of Pompeii back to the world. 1709, when a group of craftsmen were building a water well not far from Naples, they dug up many carefully carved marble blocks. The news that there are treasures underground soon spread, and more and more people came here to dig. Soon, someone dug up a stone engraved with the word "Pompeii". Only then did people know that this was the ancient Roman city of Pompeii, which was buried by the molten slurry after the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. Soon, the nearby city of Herculaneum was also discovered.

At first, the excavation of these two cities was completely predatory and destructive, and countless precious cultural relics were destroyed by random excavation. From 1860, some people of insight and officials intervened, and the excavation work gradually got on the right track. After 100 years of large-scale systematic excavation, Pompeii, an ancient city that has been sleeping for thousands of years, gradually revealed its true colors. Because Pompeii is mainly buried by soft volcanic ash and sepiolite, the excavation work is progressing smoothly; In contrast, the city of Herculaneum is covered by solid lava with a thickness of more than 10 meter, which brings difficulties to the excavation work, and only a part of it has been dug up so far. Due to the protection of volcanic dust and gravel, Pompeii's fortress structure, architectural decoration and even residents' daily necessities have been preserved, and even the painting color is still as bright as ever. This city, which was suddenly "solidified" by external forces, is like a natural history museum, vividly showing people the scene of the ancient city of Pompeii on August 24, AD 79. This ancient city covers an area of 1.8 square kilometers and is built on a pentagonal platform. The city site is slightly rectangular, about 2600 meters long from east to west, about 1600 meters long from north to south, surrounded by 4800 meters long stone walls. Pompeii has excavated eight gates, each with two towers. Its urban planning is orderly, with two straight streets in the east-west direction and the north-south direction, which divides the whole city into nine urban areas, and each urban area has many streets and lanes connected vertically and horizontally. The pavement of the street is paved with gravel, and the roadside is also paved with stones higher than the pavement, which is probably for people to walk on rainy days. The road was rutted by various vehicles.

Surprisingly, Pompeii has a complete water supply system. Spring water is introduced into the water tower in the city from the mountain outside the city through the elevated canal, and then distributed to all parts of the city through lead water supply pipes. At the crossroads, there is usually a stone pool with a statue in it, which is nearly 1 m high and about 2 meters long for the public to drink. There are three public toilets in the city, each of which uses a boiler to boil water uniformly, and hot water and warm water are led to the men's bathroom and the women's bathroom respectively. The public bathroom has complete facilities, hot and cold baths, steam baths, dressing rooms and massage rooms, and is luxuriously decorated, which is not much different from modern public bathrooms.

There is a rectangular square in the southwest of the city. According to the huge marble columns and beautifully carved arches, the original buildings here are very stylish and should be the center of political, economic and religious activities in the city. There are government offices and courts around the square. In the northeast corner of the square is a commodity distribution center, where archaeologists have found dried almonds, chestnuts, figs, walnuts, grapes and other fruits. It is conceivable that at that time, there were many shops, a dazzling array of goods, and cars coming and going, which was a bustling scene. [Transfer from Iron Blood Reading]