Far below the widelava - stone streetsof the ancient city of Pompeii , a Brobdingnagian mesh of water drainage system once render relief to the city during rainstorms , collecting excess rain and draining it out to sea . Now , a Modern geographic expedition into the urban center ’s underbelly has systematically cataloged the organization and straighten out it for run one thousand of years after its building .
The notoriously halcyon romish city was destroyed following a catastrophic irruption of Mount Vesuvius in the 1stcentury CE , blanketing its residents in volcanic ash and noxious gas that wouldkill nearly everyonein its path . Over 16,000 hoi polloi were stamp out with many leftfrozen in prison term , leave behind the metropolis abandoned for about 2,000 days , according toHistory .
Since 2018 , spelunker working with the Archaeological Park of Pompeii have explore 457 meter ( 1,500 feet ) of underground passing in an attempt to hit the books the city ’s rainwater drainage organisation , articulate the commons in astatement . A meshwork of tunnel and canal that branch out from a pair of cisterns site below the town center is believed to have been built over the course of three phase : an initial Hellenistic form in the 3rdcentury BCE , a second phase in the late Republican age around the 1stcentury BCE , and a third phase corresponding to the Augustan and Imperial eld just before the metropolis ’s dying in 79 CE .
Experts clean deposits from the tunnels that had built up over the millenary in an endeavor to doctor functionality to the system . They also identified potential issue and needed solutions to keep the drain pipes functioning while honor the archaeological internet site . on the whole , the work aims to widen our understanding of the site , which is substantive to monitor and safeguard its historic features . The discovery of the tunnels demonstrate that much still stay on to be discovered about the ancient city .
“ Furthermore , many gaps in cognition from the past regarding sure aspects or field of the ancient urban center are being fill , thanks to the collaboration of experts in various sectors , which allow us to conglomerate ever more exact datum as a result of specialized attainment which had never been employed in other periods of dig or study,”saidPark Director General Massimo Osanna .
The first phase angle of the project stop at the end of January . expert say they will now work toward repurposing canals and cisterns to continue properly drain water .
