Amphitheatre of Pompeii — Attraction in Pompei

This place is special on Earth. This place is special, magnificent and incomparable for me. But of course I don't like the fact that here people (specially trained fighters) fought to the death and that here they, gladiators, killed animals. I will never justify this. But other than that, it's a brilliantly fabulous place. This is the oldest amphitheater that has come down to us, and it has come down to us almost in its original form, after it was buried under pumice and ash from Vesuvius. In general, Pompey is insanely fascinating. Listening and reading itz story is an incredible pleasure. And the great Pink Floyd played here in October 1971! It's insanely incomparable music... Each note in this music is a correctly found note out of a trillion possible. No, you just listen here (I did this, played every track here, at the center of arena, that Pink Floyd played at that time in this place on my tab and froze there ... It was something) Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun. Goosebumps! The Pink Floyd live concert (without spectators) in Pompeii is something completely unique, great and eternal. This music incredibly matches to this ancient city, its history and corresponds to those tragic hours of that August day and night of 79 AD. You yourself must see this place, listen to the shocking history of Pompeii, find out how this unique place was dug for centuries, listen to the eternal music of Pink Floyd in order to understand all the greatness of the history of this place and...

I travelled over 18,000 km to visit this place having read the history of this famous volcanic eruption and it was worth it.

Pliny the Younger is the the most famous eye witness account of the Mt. Vesuvius eruption in 79AD.

Scientists have concluded Pliny’s accuracy in describing the eruption. In his letters Pliny has described some events that were previous considered dubious.

An example of this is that Pliny states that "We also saw the sea sucked away and apparently forced back by the earthquake: at any rate it receded from the shore so that the quantities of sea creatures were left stranded on dry sand.” This indicated that a tsunami of some sort happened on that day, but scientists had doubts this actually took place.

However the scientists are wrong! Pliny was a genius and correctly and accurately describing a tsunami that took place.

Pompeii was once near the sea. Today it is far inland. So much material was ejected from the volcano, the fourth and final pyroclastic surge (where all the dead bodies are found), with temperatures soaring over 100 degrees celcius, it went outwards 30km to sea. Thus creating a tsunami in the process. Pompeii was buried under 4 metres of solified ash.

In ancient times Mt Vesuvius was not even considered a volcano, but a mountain with a single peak as seen in several frescoes, with the mountain covered in green lush vegetation.

Far different from what...

What can you say about Pompeii that hasn't already been said by everyone else. Huge, amazing, scientific, morbid but without doubt a must visit if you are in this part of Italy. Firstly I would advise anyone to buy their tickets in advance saving you from what can be huge queues during the day. There are lots of guided tours that you pay to join and probably this would show the important parts and give you lots of information, but, I preferred to by rent an audio guide for a few euros and then meander around myself. I don't suppose I saw everything as the place is bigger than you could believe, but, I was over awed by all that you can see in a day long visit. Be aware though if you are going to see the outlines of people where they passed away then you will be disappointed -all of the remains and artifacts have been moved to a museum in Napoli so here are the buildings and friezes and decorations perfectly preserved. One piece of advice is to make sure you take food and drink with you as there is only one outlet and it is very very busy, also don't follow the signs for the cafe/restaurant as this has been closed down and re-opened at a different place so there is nothing where the signs point you too. There are water fountains around which you can use to top your bottles during the day too. But make sure you leave yourself a good 8 hours to look around as after all it is a whole town that is...