Oddly enough, one of the most popular structures inside Pompeii is the brothel. People line up to see it as the next photo shows:
The building itself is actually quite small and the rooms for clients tiny. On the walls were painted advertisements for various services:
A potential client need not speak the local language, simply point and agree to the price.
The clever Romans knew how to do business and seemed to have thought of everything. In the next post, we’ll take a look at a snack stand.
No Roman town would be complete without a bathing complex. Pompeii featured a marvelous facility. The exterior of the structure wasn’t much to see in its current condition:
But going inside, one is very impressed. The photo below shows the sort of locker room with niches where bathers places their belongings:
Here’s a look at what was a sauna. The break in the wall shows the hollow space where hot air flowed to warm the room:
And here’s a look at an indoor pool, complete with skylight:
And another bathing area:
Of course there was quite a bit of decoration as can be seen from the ceiling show in the next image:
The Romans thought of everything for this facility. It must have been a pleasant place to get clean, relax, and have a chat with your fellow resident. Surely it was the precursor to today’s modern spas.
Continuing with home visits in Pompeii, here you see how some of the rooms were painted. Of course, there’s this famous one:
And here is another one showing you a room with more context:
There’s an attempt in the panting above to show perspective. Moving closer, here’s some detail from the center:
For all those bright colors, take a look at a space adorned in darker hues:
There were many more rooms like this to show. Sadly, space here does not permit sharing them. I may do a photo essay in a few months with just random images from Pompeii. More to come from this fantastic archaeological site.
Pompeii is one of those archaeological sites that’s a buck-list must for many people, including me. I’d watched countless videos about it, read books, and hoped to get there one day.
Well, I finally did. The photo above shows one of the entrances through the town walls. Note Mt. Vesuvius in the background. From this angle, you can see about 1/3 of the crater cone is missing. That’s the part that came down the hill, burying the town. Here’s another gate, this one actually in town:
Note those paved streets, curbs, and sidewalks. Not much different than a modern town. The next posts, will take a closer look at the buildings in town, including houses, the baths, and shops.
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