Pompeii – This Ancient Roman City Will Blow Your Mind

Welcome to Pompeii, a city frozen in time and a fascination for archaeologists and tourists. 2,000 years ago, a volcanic eruption destroyed the city. It was a tragedy for the people back then but lucky for archaeologists today. The ancient city has been preserved like a time capsule. Excavations started here almost 300 years ago and there is a long way to go. I'll take you to the amphitheater, one of the largest in the Roman Empire. We'll see plaster cast of people who died in the volcanic eruption. We'll visit a beautiful villa that has just been excavated and we'll even see a former brothel. Today we're going to find out what's left, how was life here and why so many people got trapped here and I'm going to give you some tips in case you visit. Good to know, Pompeii is always crowded, especially at the main entrance, the Porta Marina. You can avoid the crowds by using one of the two side entrances like the one at Piazza Amfiteatro. As the name suggests, you can easily reach the amphitheater from here. Gladiators once battled in this huge complex. Oh my god, this is crazy here. 20,000 people as a live audience. It was a massive show. In the year 59 there was a huge fight here between the inhabitants of Pompeii and another city. Because of that, gladiator fights were forbidden for 10 years. But the citizens of Pompeii had other means of entertainment. There were two theatres, one large and one small. Tragedies, comedies and pantomimes were performed here. It was a wealthy city with amazing temples and palaces, villas and thermal baths. Today Pompeii is a UNESCO world heritage site. The site is huge, you can spend several hours or even days here. Pompeii was home to between 10,000 and 20,000 people. A beautiful location in the Gulf of Naples on the Mediterranean and an ideal climate. The soil was fertile at the foot of the Vesuvius but no one knew what was about to happen. And we are just arriving to one of the most moving places of Pompeii known as the Garden of the Fugitives. In this garden you can see cast of people who died trying to escape the volcano's wrath. During excavations archaeologists often find voids left by decomposed bodies. These voids are preserved in the solidified volcanic ash and pumice that buried the city. It all started with the ground shaking in the early morning. And around noon a huge column of gas, ash and molten rock shot up from the Vesuvius. Try to imagine this, airplanes today reach an altitude of 10 kilometers but the eruption of this volcano reached 30 kilometers high. Pumice stones rained over Pompeii. Many residents fled the city, others look for shelter in their homes. The stones were small and light but they left a huge mess behind. And things were getting worse, people couldn't open the doors, the roofs were collapsing and the houses became a trap. The next day the final blow came. Toxic clouds of gas and ash known as pyroclastic flows swept over the city. They reached temperatures estimated to be over 300 degrees celsius, suffocating anyone still alive. Nearly a 20-hour nightmare, after that all that was left was a desert of ashes, rocks and mud. Pompeii fell into oblivion. For 1,700 years the city lay dormant under several layers of earth. Pompeii was rediscovered in the 18th century and now attracts millions of visitors a year. Around 13,000 rooms have been excavated but a third of the city has still not been uncovered. I meet archaeologist Sophie Hay. And these are the new excavations that we've been doing over the last two years. So this is all the brand new material that's coming out of the ground and telling new stories about the people of Pompeii. All this roof you can see, that's covering everything they found. This is pretty exciting to be here. What does it mean for you to be here and work here? I'm an archaeologist at heart and this has to be one of the biggest privileges of my life, has been watching this all unfold. I come here every day because I now take photographs for the press and so I've had to come here as part of my job to watch the volcanic material slowly coming down and watching these amazing frescoes emerge from the ground. And yeah, I mean it's a dream job for me as an archaeologist who's in love with Pompeii. One of the most recent excavations is the villa of an important man. We don't know who he was but we do know he was very wealthy. So we will enter into the first room that they excavated. Oh my god! Is the correct reaction. This room is staggering and you have to imagine that when they started excavating this two years ago it was completely covered to the height of this roof. So this completely unseen, unknown and slowly as they peel away the layers of pumice and ash this amazing banqueting hall was kind of revealed very slowly. That's Cassandra and Apollo and on the other side you can see Helen and Paris. Greek mythology and culture were very popular with the Romans. The Roman elite spoke Greek. Everything in the house seems huge even the staircase and one banquet hall was obviously not enough. There was another one too. So these columns inside a room they're really rare in Pompeii because they date back to the middle of the first century BC and so most people have got rid of them because they're out of date and they want to modernize. So we don't have very many examples left. So this is staggering and then this amazing fresco behind it which is principally painted with a pigment called cinnabar which is one of the most expensive pigments the sort of Pompeian red if you like. The host and his guest not only dine together they also bathe together in this pool. So this is the changing room of the bath complex so this is the first room you'd use to get undressed your slave would help you undress and sit on these little benches to take your sandals off there would have been a shelf around the edge so you could leave your clothes and your toiletries. It's the height of luxury you could do this in your home. Most people have to go to a public bath house and you know mix with everybody else from the town but this is the height of luxury to be able to bathe in your own home. Wow fancy. Excavations started almost 300 years ago. Why is it taking so long? Well thank goodness it has. Somebody wrote in 1812 who was working here that they wanted to uncover the whole of Pompeii in three years. And thank goodness they didn't because as time has gone on archaeology has a developed as a discipline it didn't exist when they started digging here and when we say excavating they're not really excavating in the 18th century they are looting. They are just tunneling through taking away marbles and statues they don't care about the daily life or anything. So it's really important that we didn't dig it all and that we haven't because let's say in a hundred years time two hundred years time technology will have changed so much that we can start asking questions we can't even think of them now. Things like DNA that we are doing now on skeletons. We couldn't have even asked that question 50 years ago. So again I think part of our responsibility is to leave a lot of Pompeii not excavated for future generations. There are many excavation sites in the world. What makes Pompeii so special? So Pompeii is special because it's a town that absolutely represents the first century AD and we don't have these all throughout the Roman Empire because they grow over time they get demolished they get rebuilt. Pompeii because it was covered by a volcano so this town never changed. We get to see daily life we are not looking at the emperors we're not just looking at the elite we get to see the lives of the slaves the barman the person working in the laundrette we get to see the whole gamut of Roman society here too so it's super important this city. Guided tours of the current excavations are sometimes offered. Take a look at the official Pompeii website to see when they take place. But even without the tour there's more than enough to see. The streets alone tell a lot of stories. And look at this even the trolleys left some hints. The carts left the dents but people walked on the stones to avoid the water and waste below. Nowadays you'll find places to fill up your bottle that's not a lot of shade so bring a hat. There were often long queues in front of this building. Guess what it was? A brothel. Each of these small rooms had a door and a mattress on the stone bed. Most of the women were slaves who had been trafficked here. The price for sex was almost the same as a jug of wine or meal. Speaking of meals most houses didn't have stoves. People typically bought food outside. Here there were no tables or chairs so this place was kind of an ancient takeaway. People brought their dishes and just ate on the sidewalk. Of course the rich citizens didn't need to do that. They dined in their villas. One of the most magnificent is the house of the Veti brothers. So we are at one of the largest houses in Pompeii and there is a really particular story. Because the brothers here, the owners, they were rich. But before that they were slaves and one day they were set free. They started trading and became rich. The Veti brothers decorated their villa with many works of art and murals. They wanted to show off their new status as free wealthy citizens. Our last stop is the Pompeii Forum. It was the center of the city 2,000 years ago. Temples and administrative buildings lined the square. And there was also a market. The forum was and is the place to be. Guys if you have the chance just come here. An amazing place with the volcano behind me. A bit weird to be here though. Weird but wonderful. You can visit at your own pace or take a guided tour to see the highlights in a couple of hours. Book your ticket online in advance especially during high season. So that was all for today. Let us know what you think about this place. Would you like to visit?