The Grand Tour - Day 13 (Herculaneum)

Herculaneum from above, the modern town and then volcano Vesuvius in background

Today we went to the amazing site of Herculaneum near Naples, a town which was about 500 years old when it was destroyed by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD.  Ironically the town worshipped Hercules who was believed to have created Vesuvius.  The volcanic ash which destroyed and buried Pompeii (see day 12) only gained a few centimetres thickness on this lavish town and perhaps the inhabitants thought themselves safe. However, the second phase of the eruption reached the town around 1am at about 100 mph and today you can see the skeletons of those gathered in the boat houses on the shore-line, presumably awaiting rescue - loads more were found on the beach. Bone fractures show they will have died instantly in the high temperatures.

Mural from public baths, Herculaneum - extremely fine tiles

 The flows from the volcano which followed this completely buried the town to a depth of around 7m and yet an immense amount of material was left un-damaged.

  

For instance, there is a surprising amount of wood intact - in this picture the blackened wood is original from 2000 years ago and shows the racking for a wine shop with the amphorae for storing wine underneath.

We also saw remains of wooden staircases - this town was at least three stories high - with poorer people living above their shops and richer people having ground floor dwellings which were cooler, and perhaps a courtyard with a paddling pool.

This town was much more compact than Pompeii and much more of the detail remains so if you were in the area and had to choose, I would recommend Herculaneum over Pompeii any day.  The frescoes here were on the whole very finely painted and the fashion was for trompe-l'oiels to trick you into thinking that the room was bigger or that there were other stories or windows etc.  Also, we saw no pornographic paintings here, so perhaps the town was rather more classy as a whole.

The god Vulcan carved in marble

I am only including a small selection of the photographs Frogge took (I was completely ruined -out by this time so allowed him to have control of the camera) as if you are interested you can always Google.  There was some splendid plasterwork, although perhaps less of this than in Pompeii and several fine carvings such as the one to the right here.

For those of you who know my history with cameras, please remember to be impressed by the fact that I have been in charge of this one for the whole holiday and have not yet lost it.

Also, Frogge managed to get a shot of the Moorish gecko - only the third time we have seen one and the only time so far one would sit still.  It obviously thought itself so well camouflaged that we could not see it.






The journey to Herculaneum from the campsite was about 25 miles and took about an hour and a half to two hours.  On the map one might think that the villages Torre del Greco and Torre d'Annunziata are charming centres, but the reality is that you are already within the awful smog which covers Naples and the surrounding area and this is one shabby, sprawling suburban mass full of the worst drivers I have ever (yet) encountered.  I am glad I drove there this way because I now have the experience, but we paid to come back on the Autostrada...