Pompeii and Herculaneum, Italy

Most people are familiar with the story of Pompeii - in 79 C.E. (A.D.), Mt. Vesuvius erupted, spraying ash and covering the city of Pompeii. What many people may not know is that there was another nearby town, Herculaneum, which was also buried. For many years, people didn't know the ruins of this ancient Roman city were there - and so they built a new town over the ruins.

Of course, eventually Pompeii and Herculaneum were both discovered, and archeologists have been excavating them for artifacts of the past ever since.

I didn't really enjoy my time in Pompeii and Herculaneum. It was a hot, sunny summer day, and I was battling an eye infection which made it hard to see and made my already sensitive-to-sunlight eyes even more sensitive. Furthermore, I had wicked foot blisters at this point in my trip, and to those who've visited Pompeii and Herculaneum, you may (correctly) remember it as involving a lot of walking. It was rather painful.

So I didn't take as many pictures as I did in other cities along my trip, and the pictures I did take weren't always good. Keep in mind that these photos are from 2008 camera technology, and also that I was only wearing one contact at the time. They aren't the best photos, and I don't know if I'll ever use them as source photography for any artwork. But they're mementos of my travels, in any case.

Herculaneum. In the foreground are the ruins of the ancient city; behind the palm trees you can see the new level of earth, on which the newer city was built on top.

Herculaneum. Again, the ancient ruins are in the foreground, and the building in the far background is the new, higher ground level where the new city was built.

Pompeii. See Mt. Vesuvius in the background.

Ancient Pompeii Ruins

Mt. Vesuvius in the distance, Pompeii ruins in the foreground