The Villa of the Mysteries. About one mile outside of the city, it too was preserved by the volcano. There has been alot of research about the Villa, but little has been discovered. All that is known is that it was not associated with the city. There are pretty good assumption it was used to conduct female initiation rights.

The Villa


The Frescos of the Main Chamber



Details








These pictures don't do it justice. I used to try and guess the steps of the ritual, which most people by now think is for marriage or some other passage of age preperation.

Where exactly is this located? Is this near pompeii area??
And this was used circa what year?

Very interesting Dolce

Woops, thought I mentioned it. Yes, its a mile out of pompeii and was preserved due to Mt. Vesuvius.

I'm preparing you for your euro-vacation. :grin:

Again something that wasn't on the tour we took, but my mom and I skipped out of lunch and went and saw it ourselves since I knew it was there. Keep it in mind if you guys ever go.

These pictures can't even begin to describe the place, and the particular color red. That red was such a big deal once they excavated the site that the "red room" in the Vatican was colored to match it.

I think I remember there being some Bauccic (sp?) ritual involved in initiation having to do with that image were the man is holding up this "mask"? I dunno, its fun to try and guess the ritual.

Hmmmmmm!!!! (The rituals)


The floors look to be in good shape. Is the structure as is from the time of the volcano? Has it been been partially restored?

Restoration in Italy is always interesting. But its mostly just restoration and preservation, not recreation. I can't say for sure about the floor, but the photos make it look alot brighter than it is. They did have a massive cleaning effort recently, but I think those are the original tiles. What you see is what it was. The volcano encapsulated everything with ash (unlike a Herculeum that got lava) and the ash served as protection from the elements. Its similar to the necropolis stuff we were talking about two days ago (only that was with sand). Ash and sand work as miraculous preservation material because they protect from wind and sun.

So the ash and sand actually help preserve this.

I'm just amazed at the color preservation. Looks great.

Italy is one of the few countries in continental europe, I have not visited. I would love to visit it soon.

So this is an old time whorehouse?