Herculaneum: In Through the Out Door

 As it does most everywhere I go, the male really came out in me at Herculaneum. Though they handed us a wonderful map (included in the first Ercolano post in September), I quickly glanced at it and forged ahead into Herculaneum. As it turns out, I took us in through the exit. That's right, we went in through the out door. If you look at that map, the first picture in this post was taken on the ramp leading to the "exit" sign, the other photos were taken between "exit" and the number 43 (House of the Inn).

This first photo is taken on the ramp, looking towards the statue of Marco Nonio Balbo. What you are looking at in this photo used to be oceanfront villas and, on the lower level, boat houses. The dirt area to the right of the photo was beach two thousand years ago. When Herculaneum was first being excavated, it was thought that most everyone had escaped the city since few skeletons were found. In 1982, the boat houses were excavated and 250 skeletons were discovered. It appears that the residents had tried to escape the volcano's wrath by fleeing to the ocean.

 Stepping off the exit ramp, this is the first thing we encountered. I wanted to show these to you because they are typically construction in Herculaneum, and very eye catching. Interlacing the red clay brick with the stone yields a very visually appealing pattern.

 Here that pattern is mixed with another common theme in Herculaneum - square stone turned at a 45 degree angle. Again, very visually appealing.

 Taking a few more steps, we found ourselves in this courtyard, re-planted to look very much as it may have 2000 years ago. The orange truck on the hill is at the edge of the excavations, actually parked in the city of Ercolano. It is clearing the ancient sewer system in the excavations.

 These photos show a very typical flooring pattern in Herculaneum. Small shards of while tile laid in a very tight manner, interlaced with a few black tiles aligned in a pattern. We'll see this repeated over and over as we go through the city.

 Here is a close-up of that tile. Note the dark black repairs done in an attempt to prevent further deterioration.

 And finally, here are some partial wall remains, livened up by the spring Italian red poppies that added just the right punch to an overall sea of gray and brown. Go here in the late spring if you can in order to see these poppies yourself. As you'll see on our train trip to northern Italy, the country side was filled with a sea of red flowers.

One more shot of the poppies, and now we'll make our way over to the House of the Opus Graticium. See you over there!