Pompeii

We had a great guide for our trip to Pompeii. He explained so many things we would not have understood otherwise.

 

The Romans were amazing engineers and they built very straight roads.

 

 

They also devised a system to indicate a one way street by putting a single stone in the middle of the road that the cart wheels would straddle.

 

 

A two way road had three stones so two carts could pass in opposite directions. The small white bits in between the stones are pieces of marble which reflected light at night to indicate where the road was.

 

 

There were also street signs. This one indicated that it contained shops selling wine.

 

 

A typical street had houses set back from the street with gates and shops on either side of the entrance.

 

 

This was a fountain.

 

 

These pictures are from inside a spa. On the left is a piece of a ceiling, top right is a fountain, and bottom right is a pool.

 

 

This was a ceiling in a steam room. The windows faced four different directions so there would be light at all times during the day and the ridges in the ceiling allowed the condensation to drain away rather than drip down on the bathers.

 

 

Our guide described this as a "fast food restaurant"; wine service in the top picture and a hot food buffet in the bottom picture.

 

 

These are various styles of floors.

 

 

They devised a new way of making columns that was much less labor intensive. Rather than cutting and shaping huge blocks of stone (such as marble). They made a center column of clay then arranged five-sided bricks around it to create the flutes of the column which were then coated with marble dust mixed with stucco.

 

 

 

These are just a few more pictures from Pompeii.

 

 

 

 

 

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