Not only houses, temples, paintings, and casts. One of the main attractions of the many tourists visiting Pompeii are the ancient roads dating back to Pompeian times and still perfectly intact. Much is the curiosity and surprise of visitors to still be able to walk along roads built more than 2,000 years ago and traveled by ancient Pompeians.
The roads of ancient Pompeii were a true masterpiece of engineering for the time. The city was built entirely of lava stone, and the streets were paved with basalt stone blocks arranged to form a smooth, even pavement.
This system of street paving was so well done that many of Pompeii’s streets are still passable today, nearly 2,000 years later.
Walking in Pompeii makes us relive and imagine the moments of daily life that the ancient Pompeians experienced. And that it is possible to know only by those who know those places perfectly well.
By those who walk those streets every day and study their history uninterruptedly.
That’s why I recommend for your trip to Pompeii to book a guided tour with an expert guide. Even among the streets and sidewalks of Pompeii are enclosed moments of daily life that are worth knowing and discovering by visiting this ancient city.
The holes for tying animals or tents
Even today, for example, walking along the streets of Pompeii it is possible to see the marks of holes left on the edges of the sidewalks of the streets, probably used to secure tents or to tie animals.
The tracks of the wagon wheels
As are clearly visible are the deep furrows on the large paving blocks left by the wagon wheels that consumed the road at that point where traffic was particularly heavy. Furrows that at the time represented a kind of guideline for the chariots that happened to pass that spot.
Pompeii’s roads were crowded, busy, just think that as many as 20,000 people lived in Pompeii. And there was no shortage of chariot and animal traffic even 2,000 years ago.
The crosswalks
Another distinguishing feature of Pompeii’s streets are the large, ovoid-shaped stone blocks placed between sidewalks, still visible today.
In ancient times they were used as walkways to allow passersby to cross the street on rainy days to protect themselves from rainwater.
But they were not placed everywhere; they were only located at the entrance to a public building or house.
Engineers of the time made the crosswalks taking into account the size and height of the wheels of the wagons that crossed the city streets, to allow them to pass freely without obstructing city traffic.
But not only that during the construction of the roads they also placed stones near the edges of the sidewalks to protect the city’s pipes from the passage of chariot wheels.
In short, high engineering works, which allowed this enormous heritage to be preserved intact despite eruption, weather and wear and tear.
A heritage that can be admired every year by millions of tourists, who come to Pompeii, not only to visit its houses, its temples, but also to walk that stretch of road traveled by ancient Pompeians 2000 years ago.
