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Pompeii: Water, Bakery, Body, Baths and Forum
Back on the road - this time the Via Abbondanza. As you can see, Pompeii is very popular with sightseers. The tall stone pillar with the vertical groove
up ahead is part of the water distribution system to fountains all over the town.
And here is one of the fountains. Unfortunately they used lead piping to carry the water around.
A bread oven in a bakery. It looks just like a modern pizza oven.
We were impressed by how many shops there were in the town. This is a fast food joint, with pots that would have contained foods bubbling away above a fire.
And here's another, even bigger.
There's a trompe-l'oeil effect on this stucco of a god. The panel looks inset into the wall, but in fact the wall is flat.
One of the famous plaster casts of bodies found buried in ash.
There are dozens of such bodies on display at Pompeii.
Inside the women's bath house. This is the mosaic-floored changing room - the niches along the wall are to store your clothes in. There's a cold plunge
pool at the back.
More lockers for storing clothes on the opposite wall.
We've passed through the warm room, and we are now in the hot room. This is hi-tech - the walls and floor are a hypocaust: they are hollow, and hot
air from fires outside is fed through the gaps, giving underfloor and cavity-wall heating. You can see the hot-air ducts where the plaster has fallen
away at the left-hand side.
You should be able to see the gap behind the plaster of the wall and roof.
The plunge pool in the hot room of the bath house.
Back on the Via Abbondanza with the other sightseers.
The main forum, with the Temple of Vespasian off to the left, and the Temple of Apollo on the right.
Looking in the opposite direction, with the Temple of Jupiter in front, but the continual brooding presence of Vesuvius not far behind it.
Part of the Temple of Apollo. Work continues on the excavations.
I think this was the Basilica, off the main forum.
The Temple of Apollo, off the main forum.
We've left the main forum, and are heading for the Marine Gate (Porta Marina), and the way out of the town. The shoreline used to be a lot closer to Pompeii -
the land has risen over the centuries, and the sea has retreated.