HERCULANEUM PRIVATE TOUR
Excursion to Ercolano
If you want to travel back in time and see how the Romans lived in the 1st century AD, then you should definitely visit Herculaneum, the ancient Roman city, buried beneath meters of molten lava during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D. Instead of a sudden weight of falling ash that crushed roofs and collapsed houses in Pompeii, the fast-flowing lava filled Herculaneum from the ground up, supporting walls and roofs as it encased them. This preserved its multi-storied homes, complete with doors and staircases, as well as a wealth of organic material missing in Pompeii. Wooden furniture, textiles, and even foods and skeletons tell us much about everyday life here, and its vivid frescoes and mosaics remain intact. For these reasons, and because the site is smaller, less crowded, and the attractions are easier to explore, many tourists find Herculaneum more interesting than Pompeii.
When the city was re-discovered in the 1700s, excavators found what could be the richest repository of ancient Western wisdom: a library filled with papyrus scrolls. Scholars think there could be unknown Greek and Latin masterpieces, possibly early Christian writings, even the first references to Jesus. The problem is, the volcanic heat left the scrolls so charred and brittle, no one has been able to open them without breaking them into pieces.
Here you can see the beautifully preserved houses, fine patrician mansions with gardens enclosed by colonnades and villas of rich Romans, thermal baths, with separate sections for men and women, cobbled pavements, amazingly beautiful wall frescoes, mosaic floors, sculptures, bakeries, pottery.
The famous Samnite House is one of the oldest patrician mansions in the town - about 300 years old at the time of the eruption. The atrium has a gallery with Ionic columns, and throughout the house are rich stucco and fresco decoration.
Even the ruins of the ancient city capture people's imagination .So in 1974, oil magnate J. Paul Getty opened a museum of his holdings in a faux villa in Malibu, based on the remains of the Villa dei Papiri in Herculaneum.
Actually, in California you can see an exact copy of the villa in all its glory.
It was long believed that unlike Pompeii, Herculaneum's residents had escaped, as few human remains were evident in the town. But in 1982, further excavations at the port uncovered the skeletons of 300 people who had fled the city only to be incinerated by the sudden blast of extreme heat.
Today, the modern city of Ercolano sits above sections of the ancient city that haven’t yet been unearthed.The ancient city still holds many undiscovered secrets and mysteries for future generations.
Maybe you will be one of those who will open the veil of this mystery!
Who knows?