Sunday, February 6, 2011

Pompeii

Pompeii was quite an amazing place to visit.  Contrary to popular belief, the town has many buildings that in fact are not brothels or the like!  It's one of the best preserved Roman cities in the world, with seemingly endless streets, homes, baths, and many other buildings.  It is quite amazing to wonder down the streets, see restaurants and other food vending shops with beautiful marbled countertops (pictures coming later), see ruts in the stone streets from countless carts, and see the remains of mosaics and frescos.

This first image is inside one of the bath houses, and the second photo shows the building blocks of most Roman structures: Bricks.  While buildings were sometimes (but not as much as you would think, as the Romans were VERY good at using plaster and other means to create facades that looked like giant stone or marble blocks) faced with marble or stone, most were constructed out of brick forms filled with cement.