- My Italy Road Trip (7).
After lingering in the Amalfi Coast town, along the Amalfi Coastal Scenic Road, we came to the ruins of Pompeii, ancient Rome. When it comes to Pompeii, the topic of Mount Vesuvius is inseparable. Mount Vesuvius, located in Naples, is one of the world's most famous active volcanoes, adjacent to Pompeii. Over the millennia, Mount Vesuvius has brought countless disasters to Naples, but it is still regarded as a tourist icon by Neapolitans and Italians. There is a saying in ancient Rome: "When you go to Naples, you die at night". It shows that people have a soft spot for Naples and its Mount Vesuvius.
Mount Vesuvius is located on the east coast of Naples, and you can see it from the city of Naples. In terms of appearance, it is delicate and moving, but it is full of ruthlessness and danger. It is said that the ancient Romans were never prepared against Vesuvius when a famous geographer concluded that Mount Vesuvius was an extinct volcano that would not erupt or cause disaster. The strange rock paddles around the volcano are soft and fertile, and the grapes grow large and sweet, and the nearby city of Pompeii has become a famous wine producing area in Italy and Europe during the ancient Roman period. In addition, the transportation is convenient, the trade is developed, and the geothermal resources are abundant, and the rich and princes and nobles of ancient Rome have built garden villas here. Over the centuries, Pompeii has grown from a small fishing village to the second largest city in Italy after the capital, Rome, with more than 20,000 people.
However, what I didn't expect was that on August 24, 79 A.D., Mount Vesuvius suddenly came alive and erupted 5Huge magma and volcanic limestone 6 meters thick buried Pompeii alive without mercy. Overnight, Pompeii disappeared from the world's map. It wasn't until more than 1,500 years later that it was discovered by the locals by chance. Subsequently, after continuous archaeological discoveries and excavations, the ruins of Pompeii are today.
The ruins of Pompeii are located 25 kilometers from Naples and are located on a hill at the foot of Mount Vesuvius. After being discovered in the middle of the 18th century, after more than 100 years of development, it was rated as one of the world's top ten rare tombs by the United Nations, and is open for visitors to visit for a fee, with a ticket of 17 euros.
From the introduction, it can be seen that Pompeii covers an area of 18,000 square meters, of which it is 1,200 meters long from east to west and 700 meters long from north to south, with 7 gates, 14 towers, surrounded by stone walls. The main gate, known as the Porta Marin, is said to have been a port in ancient Roman times, just a few hundred meters from the coast. More than 2,000 years ago, Pompeii was just an ordinary small town, and when you enter the ruins, you will find that it is a large city with a large scale, beautiful architecture, and extravagance. Walking through the city, you can see that the whole city is crisscrossed by four 7-meter-wide avenues, and there are streets and alleys between the avenues, and people and vehicles go their own way, all paved with boulders. The whole city is well-planned and well-laid out, like a chessboard.
In fact, more than 2,000 years ago, Pompeii was close to the mountains and the sea, with convenient water and land transportation, a large number of merchants, and a permanent population and prosperity that was second only to the capital Rome. Now, after archaeological discoveries and excavations, although only a section of ruins and broken walls, building ruins, convex and concave pavement, and broken statues can be seen, but the grandeur of the year can still be seen. Among them, there is a central square, the Temple of the Sun, a large bathhouse with a capacity of 2,000 people, a large theater with a capacity of 5,000 people, and a Colosseum with a capacity of 12,000 people. There are also stone roads crisscrossing and rows of shops, taverns, restaurants, gold and silver workshops, pottery workshops, copper and blacksmith workshops, glass workshops, weaving houses, etc. Judging from the deep ruts on the stone pavement, it is the mark of the carriage after repeated rolling, which shows that the traffic flow, logistics, and ** here were very busy at that time.
To be continued).