NIKONCOOLPIX S9300 22mm
/ 5.7
/ 10/1000s
/ ISO 125
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Via dell′Abbondanza, Pompeii′s main street, which cuts through the whole city, starts at Forum.Looking back towards Forum from Via dell′Abbondanza, we see three stone bollards blocking the carts from entering. This means, this stretch of the street was a pedestrian zone. It was a very affluent neighbourhood with shops, restaurants, and expensive houses. They didn′t want any stinky, dirty, noisy carts around.One of the houses of this fancy neighbourhood - Casa del Cinghiale ("The House of the Boar").Like that domus on Via Marina, and every other self-respecting Roman house of certain stature, the House of the Boar had an entrance hall (fauces, or vestibulum), atrium, impluvium, and even peristilium in the back, with some of its columns still standing.Vestibulum, or fauces (which literally means "the throat") has this elaborate floor mosaic that actually gave the house its name.See that hunting scene with two dogs hounding (it′s a pun) a wild boar? That′s where the modern name of the house comes from. All the house and streets in Pompeii have modern names, because we have no idea, what they were called back then, and we need to call them somehow, right?The house next to the Boar House has very well preserved stairs to the second floor. Most probably, there was a store on the ground floor, and the owner lived upstairs.The ground floor of the same house. Check out the enfilade (the succession of rooms), and the closets under the stairs.A street fountain (lacus). This is where the Pompeiians collected water for their households. By now, we have uncovered 35 such fountains throughout the city, each within 1-2 blocks from another.The fountains always look the same - a square basin, with a deity or a mythological figurehead spouting the water. This one is the goddess of bounty and agriculture Ceres (Cerere in Latin).Roman streets (and roads in general) were a miracle of engineering for that time, so it′s worth having a closer look at them. Like this one - Vicolo di Eumachia, a back alley that runs behind the huge 1-whole-block house of that ostentatious rich lady. It′s a good example of a one-way street. The roadway fits one cart precisely.The roadway of this lane (Vicolo della Maschera) is exactly the same width as the previous one. With Roman roads, everything was standardized, so all carts will have exact same width, and will always fit into every road.And a few more examples of Pompeian streets perfectly up to code: Vicolo degli Scheletri, ⇨⇨ Vicolo di Tesmo, ⇨⇨ and Vicolo del Lupanare. Here, the deep ruts show how snugly a cart would fit into the roadway. Notice the stepping stone too, which is exactly the width and height that will allow a cart to go over it.On wider roads (like Via Stabiana here), there will be several stepping stones. The stones would still be placed so that carts will be able to go over them in both directions.And if the area is busy enough (like this stretch of Via Stabiana, just a hundred meters from the main intersection and running past two city′s theatres), than the pedestrian crossings will be placed just a dozen meters apart.The Romans cleaned their roads by flooding them with water (that′s why the roadway is always lower than the sidewalks), so you would really need stepping stones to cross. You would also need them when it rains as hard as it does now...Press ESC to exit
