Herculaneum

Below are a few photos of our time in Herculaneum

Herculaneum was once a small fishing town but now it’s situated in Ercolano near Naples.

Descending down into the ancient town of Herculaneum with the modern suburb of Ercolano towering above you and Vesuvius in the distance it’s amazing how much Volcanic pyroplastic ash covered the whole village preserving wooden artifacts and other organic-based objects such as roofs, beds, doors and food. In recent years 300 skeletons were discovered along the seashore. It was thought that the town had been evacuated by the inhabitants until this discovery.

This small fishing town was a wealthier place than Pompeii and the amount of frescoes and mosaics discovered show the amount of wealth around for such a small place. If you are in the area, you should definitely consider going to see this unique place.

Herculaneum is now an UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The old harbour which is now miles inland, contains arched storerooms where approximately 300 bodies were found during the excavations. Most of the bodies appeared to be in general good health though a few of them were suffering from advance stages of lead poisoning.

There is still a large amount of the town to be excavated and the slow process of conservation is still ongoing. New discoveries are been made all the time which is re-writing the story of this small fishing village.

It takes quite a while to walk around all the streets in Herculaneum, some of the building can still be entered, showing amazing frescoes, mosaics and statues. It’s just amazing that it’s preserved so well for us experience.

Places to visit

Herculaneum is not a very large place so you can easily see all of it within a day’s visit.

Highlights we experienced

Frescos Mosaics

Be mindful of…

Make sure you get off at the right train stop – Ercolano.

It’s not as big as Pompeii.