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You know, the city that got destroyed by Vesuvius in 79 AD?
Yes, Pompeii was bigger. Yes, they found buildings and macabre human-shaped cavities. Yes, there is some interesting stuff at the city.
But I still think Herculaneum is cooler.
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Recently, archaeologists have found the old basilica, a painted statue head, mosaics, a loaf of bread, even wooden structures such as furniture and buildings, thanks to the heat and intensity the pyroclastic flow. And that's after people back in the 1700s or so looted the place, digging tunnels throughout the ruins (Herculaneum was buried under 65+ feet of ash) and hacking apart many of the paintings to sell.
The only problem with excavating it is that there's a city above the ruins.
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Of course, having a city there is rather dangerous. If Vesuvius erupts again like the way it did in 79 AD--and that's not impossible in the least--it could mean a disaster many, many times greater than the one thousands of years ago. 6 million people live where Herculaneum, Pompeii, Stabiae, and Oplontis (those are the other towns destroyed) used to be. Evacuation plans for the Bay of Naples only account for 600,000.
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If you'd like to learn more, go HERE to the PBS Secrets of the Dead and watch the video.
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herculaneum
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The danger of a volcanic eruption aside, it's a cool site, don't you think?
-----The Golden Eagle
