Never trust a mountain (Italy part 2)

 Italians looooove their statues. Take this beauty in Naples.

Most people think it's Christopher Columbus pointing west.

It actually isn't.  If you read the inscriptions 

you'll find that the statue is of Chris's dad.  It says 

"You're 18a yearsa old, alla you do is sit arounada  house playing video gamesah.  Getta the hell outta my house ana get a job".

Recognize  this mountain?

OK, that would be a bit of a stretch. It's famous, but not as iconic as this one.

Mt Fuji

This is Mt. Vesuvius. Or rather, what's left of it. In 79 A.D. it blew up with one helluva bang. A truly, epic, massive bang in fact. It puked up ash, pumice, and fumes at the rate of 1,500,000 tons per second. At the time, there were 16,000 poor bastards living down slope.  They were all caught (except for a guy named Pliny the Younger) by one of the largest pyroclastic flows in recorded history. Pliny was on the outskirts of the death zone. Pliny later wrote a couple letters to the historian-Tacitus. The first letter began with "Holy shit Tacky, you won't believe what happened today". In case you're wondering, Pliny the Elder was an admiral in the Roman fleet.  Elder also got snuffed. Pyroclastic flows are an especially nasty mixture of hot gases and assorted ash that spread out down the mountain at up to 450 miles per hour.  Temperatures of over 1,000 degrees are common. They're killers and they happen quickly.

Pyroclastic flows sweep down the flanks of Mayon Volcano, Philippines, in 1984

Most of us remember that the city of Pompeii was nicely preserved by the eruption. It wasn't, however, the only hapless victim. Herculaneum also got nailed. Pompeii stayed buried and forgotten for almost 1,700 years until in 1748 a Spanish engineer happened across the ruins. What makes Pompeii so interesting is that the volcano killed everyone very quickly.Then the ash buried and preserved the scene.  It is a fascinating snapshot of city life roughly around the time of Christ. 

The Italians have been carefully digging out Pompeii for over 250 years. Recently, however, they've stopped.  With good reason. Right now 2/3 of Pompeii has been exposed. Exposure to air, pollution, weather, tourist hands... has taken a toll. 2 1/2 million people a year visit Pompeii.

The Italians have done a terrific job exposing the ruins.  Too good in fact.  Most tours of Pompeii last a couple hours.  To really see the place would take a couple weeks.  With my abbreviated attention span - 2 hours was enough. I found a few mysteries (and solved a couple).  First up - where'd everybody go? The casts of the dead people all over the streets are gone. Now you only find them behind glass.

What happened to the rest of them?  Did the British steal them like they did all the Egyptian mummies?

What did people smell like in those times?  Probably not good, but not as bad they could have. The Romans liked their baths.

Did they have bars?  Ohhhh yeeaaahh. Quite a few of them.

wine storage

missing tables and chairs

What about hookers?  Lots of them - institutionalized, just like Nevada.

Specialty of the house - (pictorial for the illiterate)

Brothel accommodations (presumably there was a mattress on top of the stone "bed")

Did the brothels advertise? Yup.  Right in the street.

Hint, look closely at the stone.  Points to the right, so to speak.

How did they tell time?  Ye old sundial.

How did they get around the city?  Chariots.  Look at the street for the ruts worn in the stone.

What about entertainment?  Have an amphitheater.

I saved the best for the last two mysteries.  How was the place built?  Simple.  Pompeii was built out of stone Lego's. I kid you not.  Below is a shot of the main bank - using Zeus for a logo.

If you go behind the bank and check out how all the columns were built (by looking at the ones that fell down) - look what you find.

I know a Lego when I see one.  God knows I've stepped on enough of the goddamn things barefoot in the dark when the kids were little.

Last, but not least - would Pompeii have survived for long if Vesuvius hadn't gone kablooey? Probably not.  Take a close look at the water system.  Roman engineers were the best in the world for plumbing.  Their only problem was that they didn't know diddly squat about metallurgy. 

Communal water fountain

Supplied by this for piping

Yep, that's lead pipe they used.  Not good if you want to live past 20.

So, is the danger of Vesuvius over? After all, it blew up almost 2 millennial ago.  No, in fact Mt Vesuvius is considered one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world.  3,000,000 people are now living in the cone of destruction - that includes Naples. Vesuvius continues to shake rattle and roll.  In 1944 the crater suffered a landslide so large that it sent up a bloom of ash and scared the crap out of all the Italians that were already scared of the Allies.

Good thing us Americans are so much smarter than the Italians. Really?      Does this mountain look familiar?

"Mount Rainier 5917s" by Walter Siegmund (talk) - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mount_Rainier_5917s.JPG#mediaviewer/File:Mount_Rainier_5917s.JPG

 This is Mt. Rainier, in Washington. Mt. Rainier is listed right next to Vesuvius as one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world.  A major eruption would trash most of Seattle and Tacoma.