National Holiday!!! (And a city destroyed by a volcano!)

I have all sorts of fun things to talk about today, the first being that I did not have school today! My students and I got a day off because of Prince William's wedding. Instead of going to London where all the craziness is, I stayed at my house and watched it on the telly.  We had tea and scones and party-poppers for the kiss on the balcony. It was so exciting...and in case you haven't seen one yet, here is a picture of Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, and her husband, Prince William (who became Duke of Cambridge this morning at around 8:00).

Now then, I also mentioned a city destroyed by a volcano.  Not here in England--in Italy!  Some of you may heard of Pompeii and Mount Vesuvius.  While we were in Italy, we visited the ruins of Pompeii.

One of the most amazing things is that Pompeii was a port city, meaning it was on the sea.  As you can see from this picture, there is no water anywhere near the ruins. That is because after the volcano erupted, the sea receded.

In 79 AD, Mount Vesuvius literally blew its top.  Volcanic ash and rock fell on to the city of Pompeii and completely covered it, killing over 5,000 people.  The reason everything is in such good shape today is because of the layer of ash that fell onto the city. 

The buildings were completely preserved.  There are large storehouses of pottery and tools and other such things that were unharmed in the volcano's eruption.  Because of all this amazing preservation, scientists can really see what life was like in Pompeii and can make conclusions about what it was like all over Italy during that time. 

Yes, this is a person from Pompeii.  It does require a bit of explanation.  You see, when scientists and archeologists started to excavate the city, they kept finding all these empty pockets in the ash.  Someone noticed that these pockets had bones in them and realized that they were where people had been when the volcano erupted.  They quickly filled some of the pockets with plaster, and now they can see the position that the people were in when they died.  Kind of gruesome, but it goes to show how much of a shock this was for the people of Pompeii. They found people sitting at tables or cooking, just going about their daily lives.  Little did they know that sleeping mountain behind them was going to explode!

This is a very famous statue called "The Dancing Faun."  A faun was a mythological creature.  Historians do not know who lived in this house, but they know that this person was extremely wealthy and had good taste.  The house is massive, has two gardens inside the walls, and very few decorations.  They have never been able to find any sort of record of who might have lived there.  This would be like if some millionaire had a mansion, abandoned it, and left no trace as to who they really were.

Going to Pompeii was strange.  It was hard to look at the ruins and imagine them as a city.  People would have walked on the streets and lived in the houses. There are several places they have identified as bakeries based on the kind of things in the house. People just lived their lives here! Now it is hard to imagine that.

Tomorrow, I will show you the other key part of the Pompeii story. I hope you enjoyed learning about Pompeii!