⚱️ Pompeii's Ghost Road: The Street of Tombs

 ⚱️ Pompeii's Ghost Road: The Street of Tombs 💀🚶‍♀️

🏛️ Entering the city of Pompei one can't help noticing the row of tombs set along the road. Called the Street of Tombs, this cemetery stretches from the Herculaneum Gate along the road which leads towards Herculaneum, a nearby town, which, together with Pompeii, was destroyed by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD.

🏛️The graves were placed here on purpose. Since it was forbidden to bury bodies inside the walls of Pompeii, this street outside the city, which, back in the day, was a busy road filled with travelers and lined with numerous shops, was chosen as a suitable burial ground.

🏛️The greater portion of the Street of Tombs was cleared in Spring 1813 under the “liberal patronage” of Napoleon’s sister, Caroline Murat, who was Queen of Naples during the French occupation of 1808-1815.

🏛️Passing through the picturesque plane balanced by the horizontally spread, light-filled ruins, cradled between the pastoral foreground and sleeping mountain at the back, this Street stands as a reminder that the entire city is a monument to the ancient Romans who perished here 2,000 years ago.

🧐Curiosities🕯️🕊️

The street  contained  over 30 tombs, reflecting the wealth of those buried.

💀The Ancient Pompeian  "Picnic" for the Dead 🍷The Pompeians  believed the dead still needed sustenance. Wealthy families would sometimes hold a ritual meal, or a cena novendialis, at the tomb.

💀 The most curious part is how the deceased "shared" the meal. Some tombs had a small tube or channel that ran from the surface down into the ground, leading directly to the burial urn or container holding the ashes.

💀Through this tube, the family would pour a libation (an offering of liquid), often wine, or sometimes even blood (if a sacrifice was made), so the spirit of the deceased could partake in the meal with the living.

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