Pompeii is huge. Comprising nine regions across 66 hectares it would take two to three days to see it all. Here are seven highlights.
It was AD 79 when the volcanic eruption of Mount Vesuvius buried Pompeii under layers of ash during a two-day tempest. Today, the 66-hectare archaeological site offers visitors a snapshot of daily life in an ancient Roman city. Here’s how to make sense of it all.iStock
Before you enter, pause to think about the estimated 2000 people who died at Pompeii and as many as 16,000 within the Gulf of Naples, not by lava flow, but from asphyxiation caused by a lethal cloud of ash and gas. The Garden of the Fugitives holds the largest number of victims, where 13 people perished while attempting to flee. Plaster casts made from the impressions of their bodies in the ash show the horror of their final agonising minutes.
Pompeii was a prosperous centre for travel and trade, where the upper class lived in lavish houses designed to display the owner’s wealth. The House of Menander was one of the most magnificent. Follow the atrium to the peristyle court, admire the well-preserved painting of the Athenian dramatist Menander, take note of the elegant mosaics and the small private bath complex on the western side. Look up to see a fresco of the hunter Actaeon being devoured by his own dogs.
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