Streets of Pompeii...

Today when you walk across the streets of Pompeii, you can witness the traces of old wagon wheels that used to roll over the big basalt stones on the streets. Nearly every citizen of Pompeii was able to read and write. This is made visible by many engravings on the walls, which are full of slogans, banners and other graffitis. Many houses remained surprisingly well preserved. The richly decorated villas of the city were mostly located at the seaside before the eruption. The residences were designed after prototypes of Greek architecture. Guests of these houses were often welcomed into an atrium from which the enclosed rooms led off. The atrium was surrounded by many stairs and a squared courtyard which was carried by four coloumns. The large entrances of other houses, called vestibules, were decorated with different religious murals and ornaments in order to protect its inhabitants. Another part of the villas was the peristyle. It was an open colonnade in which the gardens of the houses were situated. From the colonnade of the peristyle you could reach the special summer dining room. The most famous place of the once wealthy city of Pompeii was the forum. This was the main square of the city. It was the location of the administration buildings, the thermal springs, which were separate for men and women, and the market halls. On its northern side was the Capitolinic Temple, in the east the Macellum and the Eumachia (market halls for food and clothes) with the Temple of Vespasian. In the southeast you can find the Comitium (the court) and on the western side is the location of the Basilika.The water channel system of the city worked extremly well.