"pompeii - the pomp & glory of a lost city" Pompeii by papul

and so i made it to pompeii. the last i had been intrigued about pompeii was when i was 10, and in a history lesson learnt about this magnificient city that was buried by vesuvius... and in 2004 i stepped into this city, and it was an overwhelming experience. history literally turns me on... every monument i visit or a historical fort that i visit, i keep imagining the emperors or the people of that era, and the fact that amazes me is that on the very spot that i stand, many years ago emperor shah jahan must have stood looking across the yamuna river, or in this case, the people of pompeii must have ran for their lives through these very same streets... it was a conducted tour organized by carrani tours that took me from roma to pompeii...

the courtyard in the house of pliny the elder

the town square from which you can see mt. vesuvius is awe-inspiring... i just kept thinking back to the time when the people of pompeii standing at this very spot would have seen the volcano erupt, and the lava flowing down towards them... i could almost hear the screams, the shouts, the chaos... now all replaced by the silence, and the occasional clicks and whirrs of cameras, and hushed guided tour operators speaking in multi-languages... one of the most surreal experience was standing in the house of pliny the elder (whose written account led to the discovery of the buried city)... here was this guy's house who had lived, eaten, in this house... now he is just a name in history... and i was standing in his house... i had the lonely planet with me...and so while i stood in his house, i read aloud his account of the day pompeii had gotten buried... the frescoes on the walls still survive...

early street crossings

the streets of pompeii had these strange stepping stones... they are the world's first zebra crossing!!! the gaps were there so that carriages could cross through... and apparently these stepping stones were the exact measurement with which the metre-gauge railways begun with - the width of the track... the bodies that were displayed - now frozen in time with volcanic ash had anguish and pain written in their expressions - i was told that most of the people who were trapped were either kids or were prisoners / slaves who were left chained by the law / owners who ran away in panic forgetting to unlock them...

• Pros:a historic city frozen in time - has to be seen to be believed
• Cons:if you like seeing things in detail than this city cant be covered in one day... as each house has a story - from the brothels to the bars, from the houses to the streets... so be ready for two trips... but its worth it