Historic Cities · Italy

Pompeii through the ages

Pompeii was a city in what is now the municipality of Pompei, near Naples, in the Campania region of Italy. Along with Herculaneum, Stabiae, and many surrounding villas, it was buried under 4 to 6 m of volcanic ash and pumice in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.

AD 79 · roman town under vesuvius 1800 · grand tour excavations

Pompeii in AD 79

Pompeii before Vesuvius

Pompeii in AD 79 is a prosperous Campanian town of shops, baths, markets and temples beneath the green bulk of Vesuvius. This walk moves from the coastal approach through gates, along the main street and into the forum district, past public baths, theatres, the amphitheatre and the palaestra, ending on the city walls with a wide view toward the mountain.

Low stone houses and two‑storey townhouses cluster within limestone and tufa walls; colonnaded public buildings and temple porticoes puncture a low horizon. Streets are paved with worn basalt blocks and deep cart ruts; painted shopfronts and brightly frescoed façades add red, yellow and white to sunlit dust. Wells and stone fountains mark crossroads. Mount Vesuvius rises green and cultivated just beyond the city, forming an ever‑present backdrop.

The walk — 23 streets, squares and views

Coastal Plain Approach → Road to the Port → Porta Marina → Via Marina → House of the Faun (Front) → Via dell'Abbondanza → Thermopolium Counter → Street Bakery → Crossroads Fountain → Stabian Baths → …

Step inside — 14 interiors

Atrium with Impluvium · Triclinium with Alexander Mosaic · Taberna with Painted Notices · Thermopolium Counter with Dolia · Bakery Milling Room and Oven · Caldarium Hot Room · Apodyterium Changing Room · Theatre Cavea and Stage · Roofed Odeon Auditorium · Cella of Jupiter · Basilica Judicial Hall · Covered Meat Hall · Palaestra Colonnaded Courtyard · Amphitheatre Arena and Passages

Walk Pompeii in AD 79 →37 scenes · 555 Clan Coins

Planned from the Wikipedia record: Pompeii.

Pompeii in 1800

Grand Tour Pompeii

This is Pompeii in the age of Bourbon excavations, a buried Roman town half-revealed by the work of mid‑18th‑century diggers and visited by Grand Tour artists. The walk shows half‑cleared streets running into banks of earth, newly exposed temples and theatres, spoil heaps and tool shelters, with Vesuvius smoking beyond the open ruins.

Low sun casts long shadows across dusty streets hemmed by fluted column bases, broken walls and banks of spoil, while patches of broom, vines and fig saplings cling to the unexcavated blocks. Exposed marble, tufa and brick shelters gleam pale against rusting wheelbarrows; the amphitheatre and theatres appear as cut stone stages among terraces of earth with Vesuvius looming, a dark, smoking cone on the horizon.

The walk — 21 streets, squares and views

Sarno Plain View → Porta Marina → Via dell'Abbondanza → Macellum (Market) → Foro (Forum) → Basilica → Capitolium (Temple of Jupiter) → Eumachia Building → Temple of Isis → Foro Triangolare → …

Step inside — 12 interiors

Macellum Central Hall · Antiquarian's Cabinet of Bronzes · Basilica Nave and Tribunal · Cella of Jupiter · Hall of Eumachia · Inner Sanctuary of Isis · Frigidarium of the Stabian Baths · Caldarium of the Central Baths · Stagehouse of the Large Theatre · Peristyle Mosaic Court · Sanded Arena of the Amphitheatre · Excavators' Shelter and Finds

Walk Pompeii in 1800 →33 scenes · 495 Clan Coins

Planned from the Wikipedia record: Pompeii.

In this city