Pompeii 庞贝古城

The city of Pompeii was an ancient Roman town-city near modern Naples in the Italian region of Campania, in the territory of the comune of Pompei. Pompeii along with Herculaneum and many villas in the surrounding area, were mostly destroyed and buried under 4 to 6 m (13 to 20 ft) of ash and pumice in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.

 

Researchers believe that the town was founded in the seventh or sixth century BC and was captured by the Romans in 80 BC. By the time of its destruction, 160 years later, its population was probably approximately 20,000, with a complex water system, an amphitheatre, gymnasium and a port.

The eruption was cataclysmic for the town. Evidence for the destruction originally came from a surviving letter by Pliny the Younger, who saw the eruption from a distance and described the death of his uncle Pliny the Elder, an admiral of the Roman fleet, who tried to rescue citizens. The site was lost for about 1500 years until its initial rediscovery in 1599 and broader rediscovery almost 150 years later by the Spanish engineer, Rocque Joaquin de Alcubierre in 1748. The objects that lay beneath the city have been well preserved for thousands of years because of the lack of air and moisture. These artifacts provide an extraordinarily detailed insight into the life of a city during the Pax Romana. During the excavation, plaster was used to fill in the voids between the ash layers that once held human bodies. This allowed one to see the exact position the person was in when he or she died.

Pompeii has been a tourist destination for over 250 years. Today it has UNESCO World Heritage Site status and is one of the most popular tourist attractions of Italy, with approximately 2.5 million visitors every year.

 

庞贝于西元前600年左右在意大利沙诺河畔的一个小丘上建城。这个地方当时已经成为希腊人和腓尼基人的良港。当时当地的希腊人非常强大。前5世纪萨姆尼特人占领庞培和附近地区。庞贝的建筑受到萨姆尼特人非常深的影响。萨姆尼特人还扩大了这座城市。前89年，罗马当权者苏拉的军队包围庞贝，前80年，罗马占领庞贝，庞贝成为罗马的一个殖民地。由于庞贝是一个良好的海港，而且位于交通要道亚壁古道的附近，因此它很快就成为一个兴旺的商业城。63年，一场剧烈的地震给庞贝带来了巨大的破坏，但庞贝很快就重新建立起来了。79年在經歷幾次地震等火山活動徵兆的一週後，維蘇威火山爆發，一夜之間将龐貝活埋於火山灰下。 

重见天日

庞贝被掩盖在六米多深的火山灰下。它的名字和位置被人遗忘了。1599年，一个建筑师在挖河的时候發现了庞贝的遗蹟，但一直到150多年后，人们才真正开始挖掘这座古城。1738年，与庞贝遭到同样命运的古城赫库兰尼姆被发掘出来，1748年庞贝也被重新發现。有人说[谁？]，1599年那个建筑师發现庞贝时挖出了一些色情的壁畫，当时的宗教观念对这些色情艺术的控制非常严，因此他又悄悄地将它们掩盖了。虽然这个传说至今为止并未完全被证明，但后来的挖掘者的确报告说他们有时发现有的地方是被挖开过后来又被填上了。
 

市内的中心广场、许多房屋和一些别墅都被保存得非常好。在市外不远的地方还發掘出一个旅馆。庞贝是今天世界上唯一的一座其构造完全与当时相符的城市，它一点变化也没有。今天许多意大利的城市的结构都已经被改变了。庞贝的街道完全是棋盘似的纵横交错的，这是正宗的古罗马的传统。街面铺有多边形的石块，它们完全是东西或南北走向的。

1997年，庞贝城考古区被列为世界文化遗产。