Horn Herald: Day 5

On Day 5, we took the train from Naples to Pompeii. Naples is a very dirty city and there was a long walk to the train station. When we got to Pompeii, we got off the train, got tickets and went in. Pompeii was a resort city for Rome, meaning that the Roman citizens had vacation homes there. Pompeii was destroyed in 79 A.D., when the nearby Mt. Vesuvius erupted. Pompeii was a very perverse city when it was destroyed. People would just throw their trash into the streets, so they made the fountains overflow to wash out the streets. Because of this there were sidewalks for pedestrians, and large stones were placed in the streets for people to cross the street, and the chariots could go over them. Like in Rome, there were temples to everyone they could think of.

The people in Pompeii probably did not know the destruction was coming. There had been some earthquakes, but there had been earthquakes before. They probably started that day like they would have started any other day. They ate and drank and were merry, not knowing that they would surely die.

We walked through the streets and looked at some of the buildings. Many of the houses were well preserved, and in some you could still see mosaics. Pompeii had it's own amphitheater, and a house where they trained the gladiators. It was very much like Rome because it was a Roman city. Here are some pictures: