The story of Pompeii, a prosperous Roman city of 20,000, is probably one of the best-known in world history. One day in October 79 AD, around 1 pm, the nearby Mount Vesuvius, which turned out to be a volcano, exploded. It spewed out rocks and hot ash at the rate of 1.5 million tons per second for 2 days straight, ultimately covering two cities, Pompeii and Herculaneum, and the surrounding area with 4-6 meters of volcanic ash. Under all that ash, Pompeii and the Pompeiians stayed, mostly forgotten, until excavations began 700 years later. In another 250 years, I arrived, to assess the damage.
It was raining on the day I visited Pompeii. And I mean, cats and dogs raining. Which was a curse AND a blessing at the same time. A blessing – because there were far fewer people that would normally be there (even in November). Our guide Anna kept saying: “You guys cannot imagine how lucky you are”. There were so few people that I didn’t even bother photoshopping them out, which is my usual wont. And a curse – because of the heavy rain I couldn’t use my camera, so I had to take all the pictures with my phone. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great phone (you will see for yourselves), but still, a camera in the phone is not a real camera. So, there you have it. And one more thing: I suggest you view the galleries below in the order they are listed here, and read the descriptions under the photographs. I was trying to tell a story with these pictures, and I don’t want you to miss it.