Pompeii

Pompeii - darkometer rating : 7 - --------------------- UPDATE: I've recently manage to finally visit this place myself and will in due course turn the text below into a full-entry chapter with first-hand impressions, practicalities and a photo gallery. Please bear with me. In the meantime you can take a look at this recent blog post for an overview and some photos. --------------------- A world-famous heritage site, one of Italy 's premier tourist attractions and one of the most important archaeological sites on Earth for its Ancient Roman remains and relics: it's the largest and best preserved Ancient Roman town. It is also a dark tourism spot, of course, namely for the reason it was preserved so well: the ancient city was covered by volcanic ash in the disastrous eruptions of nearby Mt Vesuvius in the year 79 AD. For about 1700 years the site lay covered under this volcanic shroud (which also sterilized and thus preserved it) and was as good as forgotten until its rediscovery in the 18th century. Serious excavations were started in the 19th century – and are still unfinished. About one-third of the site is still unexcavated, and for the time being it has been decided to leave it at this. What has been found here, amongst the glorious mosaics (some famously quite pornographic) and other cultural relics was the remains of human bodies – of those unfortunate enough to get trapped or who made the mistake of staying behind too long at the time of the eruptions back then. What was actually found was the hollow spaces left by the bodies, which were then filled with plaster to (re)create casts that look like "petrified" bodies. It is mainly these that provide the dark appeal. Some of the plaster casts of bodies appear to show a facial expression of calmly having fallen asleep, others seem to display deadly horror, which only amplifies the dark impression.