Pompeii: an ancient city preserved by volcanic ash

After our trip to the Indian subcontinent this summer, I didn't think we would be writing about ruins for a long time. But after seeing the ruins of Pompeii today, we must share our amazement at this historical wonder and designated World Heritage Site.

While most ruins we saw were the result of abandonment, wind and water erosion, invasions and religious struggles, Pompeii was literally buried by one of the most famous volcanic eruptions in history.

The city of Pompeii was built sometime between the 6th and 7th centuries B.C. and it included all the features of a complete Roman city. It had a forum, amphitheatre, streets, avenues, houses, market, shops, municipal buildings, gladiators' quarters, brothels, gardens, steam baths, and so on.

The Romans occupied Pompeii to take advantage of its proximity to the commercially-attractive Mediterranean Sea.

Then in 79 A.D., a sudden and unexpected eruption took place on Mount Vesuvius, just about eight kilometres away and released a force equivalent to two atom bombs. The result was a massive and widespread shower of ashes that spread over a large part of southern Italy.

The village of Pompeii was buried under the ashes and literally disappeared from the face of the earth. This architectural wonder ceased to exist.

That was the bad news. The good news was the area was covered with ashes and not with lava. Had the eruption spread lava, it would have permanently destroyed the remains of the city. Instead, the ash preserved the remains and much of them have been unearthed and preserved by archeologists. And that makes for a fascinating tour by visitors who can almost see what the whole city looked like and understand the lives and culture and history of residents.

We learned during our tour that the ash had great beneficial qualities for agriculture and natural vegetation. This part of southern Italy has some of the most fertile soils and helps in the production of quality grapes, olives, tomatoes and a whole range of products that have made the area famous.

We hope these images will give you a sense of the extent of the damage and how well some of the stone, brick and marble construction has been preserved.

Following our tour of the Pompeii ruins, we had a chance to taste some products of the Vesuvius foothills. We were taken to a wine farm where we had delicious food and wine pairings grown from the family crops and vineyard.

This is a part of the grape and olive plantation with Mount Vesuvius in the background.

We hope you have enjoyed these updates from Italy and look forward to reporting to you from Rome in a few days.

Arrivederci