Pompeii Exhibit (OMSI)

We had a chance to visit Portland's OMSI this summer

and its Pompeii Exhibition. 

I can't say enough good things about it. 

As I mentioned in an earlier post HERE,

(with photos of the real Pompeii)

getting to visit this site in Italy was like a 

life-long dream come true for me. 

And in this exhibit,

I love the way so many aspects of it

make you feel as if you are there. 

And not just there,

but as if you are there back then,

in early Roman times. 

79 A.D. to be exact. 

In fact, 

many of the captured images below are from a film

which makes you feel as if you are walking through a Roman house

of the period. 

Much of the exhibit 

is about showing you things as they would have looked then. 

But not all.

From a photo of the ruins,

the picture below shows a sidewalk,

large stones put in place

for the times when water ran through the streets. 

And while this is a recreation,

at the real site of Pompeii,

some of the baking houses

still had ovens semi-intact.

And these wine jugs above remind me

that in my earlier post on Pompeii,

I found a family wine maker who is working to recreate

nearly the exact wines the Pompeians drank at the time

through resin lifted and tested from underground wine storage terracotta jars. 

By using the same vineyard locations, same climate, same soil

(well as same as one can get 2,000 years later),

and knowing what to strive for with the tested resin,

they are striving to get as close as possible. 

And someday I hope to taste this new/old Pompeian wine. 

But for now, the price is about 10 times what I prefer to pay for a bottle. 

In the last room, 

the OMSI exhibit even includes some of the casts 

of the Pompeians who were captured in time.

Frozen in their last agonizing moments. 

While much of the exhibit, 

like at the actual site,

is exciting and astonishing and awe-inspiring,

this is the saddest room and aspect. 

If you're in the Portland area,

the OMSI Exhibition goes through Oct. 22nd, 2017. 

And if you wish to visit my post with more info and photos 

of the actual site including the family recreating Pompeian wine, 

please Click Here.

OMSI

Oregon Museum of Science and Industry

1945 SE Water Avenue

Portland, OR

omsi.edu

Museum + Pompeii Exhibit- $26 Adult

Museum + Pompeii- $22 Senior (63+)

Museum + Pompeii- $17 Youth (3-13)

(Photos copyright: Kirsten Steen

Please do not reproduce.)