Pompeii

Once there was a city in Italy. The name of the city was Pompeii. Pompeii was not a great city. It was considered one of the wealthier towns. Its ruins were all preserved. Pompeii lies on a plateau of lava. Pompeii sat 2 km away from the coast of Italy. It also sat 1 mile away from Mount Vesuvius. The town had a wall built around it. There were 8 main entrances to the town within the walls. The streets were built very well.

In the 500's B.C. the area became an influence on other Greek colonies along the coast. The Samnites who were people of the mountains, occupied Pompeii in the 400's B.C. Pompeii was a very dull and unimportant city until the 200's B.C. That is when they started to expand. It became a Roman Community in 91 B.C.

Pompeii was built in an oval shape. A wall with eight gates surrounded the city. The streets were paved with blocks of lava. In the center there was something called a forum, or an open square. The city had a gladiator's court, an amphitheater, many temples, and three large public baths.

I know what you are thinking Public Baths? Yes, Pompeii had three very large public Baths. This is because the people of Pompeii are very fond of running water. They had many aqueducts that were very sacred to them. Some people had baths in their own homes. Some went to the public baths. These public baths were something like spas. In this building they had Hot Rooms and Warm Rooms (Steam Rooms), Cold rooms and changing rooms. These rooms were separated by male and female. In that time people could walk around bare and no one would care.

Everything was all well and good until 79 AD, Mount Vesuvius erupted. This eruption buries Pompeii in ash and cinders. People try to escape but some did not. The people who did make it safely away from the volcano, escaped by boat. Later in late august of that same year, people started to return to Pompeii to find their homes and belongings. The effort was finally abandoned. In 202 Ad Mount Vesuvius erupted again. This eruption lasted for a full week. In 306-5333 Ad Vesuvius erupted at least four times. In 1594 AD Workers found a stone that said "decurio Pomeiis". They thought that it came from a famous roman ruler named Pompey. In 1631 Vesuvius erupted again. This has been the worst eruption since 79 AD. There was lava spewing in at least seven different directions. In 1707 AD, Prince D'Elboeuf starts digging