As many as one hundred and fifty sheep have been deployed to graze in the ancient city of Pompeii in Italy, helping to maintain green areas at its archaeological sites.
The ‘green’ lawn-mowing method is part of a nine-month-long initiative to not only tame the unruly grass but enrich the soil in a region which looks to improve its vineyards.
“A piece of this project that we have called ‘Pompeii Agricultural Company’ are the sheep you see behind me, who come here, with zero environmental impact, to eat the grass that we don’t have to cut and to enrich the landscape of the archaeological site even a little,” said Gabriel Zuchtriegel, Pompeii’s Archeological Park director.
Pompeii, now a mass archaeological excavation site, was once a functioning city which become engulfed in pumice and ash following the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in the year of 79 AD.
Lack of air and moisture helped to preserve large parts of the Roman city in a nearly perfect state until it was discovered in 1748.
