Pompeii: Entering the City

 We are passing through the walls that surround Pompeii in this first photo. As were many cities at the time, Pompeii was a walled city. With a population of 20,000, it was an area were Romans had their holiday villas. Pompeii and Herculaneum are the only Roman cities where we can examine life exactly as it existed two thousand years ago. Since it was buried by a sudden event, daily life is captured intact and undistrubed - except for a few tunnelers that searched for booty over the years.

 We are now in the city itself, with the Basilica on the right side. If you'd like to follow along on the map, you can access it using this link.

 Here is the first dog we ran across in Pompeii. At first they were a novelty to me so I took a photo of every one I saw. When I realized how numerous they were, I stopped taking their photo. I'm not sure where they get their food, but most of them looked to be having a lazy, sleepy day.

 This is the basilica, number 5 on the map referenced above. The basilica was created as a covered market. The roof collapsed during the 62AD earthquake and it then became an open-air market. Finally, by the time Vesuvius erupted in was a part of the judicial system.

I'm not sure which direction I was looking at this time, but it shows you the surrounding mountains visible from Pompeii.

 Looking towards the forum (number 6 on the map), we can see tourists trying to get their bearing, figuring out where they are going to go for their day of exploration. I kind of imagine ancient Pompeii residents and visitors doing the same thing...visitors would have just entered through the tunnel, and residents would no doubt gather in the forum.

 Another lazy, sleepy dog has found himself a nice shady niche for a nap...

 To give you a sense of scale, here is someone standing in the basilica.

 These are the public administration buildings, number 7 on the map, located on the edge of the forum. The government constructs of Pompeii are rather boring to me, so I won't be going into detail here.

 Just a glimpse of what is to come when we explore the forum here shortly.

And another shot showing the beautiful mountains and clouds in the distance.

 The public administration buildings once again...

 ...and a shot of the interior of one of them. It was about this time when we realized there was no way we were going to see all of Pompeii in one day, so we were going to have to prioritize. We had already seen typical houses and shops in Herculaneum so we decided to see the theater and amphitheater in Pompeii, and let the paths to those uncover other things along the way.

So now that we have the introductions out of the way, let's explore the forum then start heading over to the nearby theater!