Archaeological Areas of Pompei, Herculaneum and Torre Annunziata
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How it came to be
The Oscans founded five villages on the site of Pompeii, which merged in the early 6th century BC into one community inside a tufa wall. The Samnites took it around 424 BC, and in 89 BC it surrendered to Sulla after a siege and became a Roman colony. An earthquake on 5 February 62 caused heavy damage.
The eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79 buried Pompeii under up to 6 m of ash and pumice, while Herculaneum disappeared under pyroclastic surges and flows. About 1,150 bodies have been found at Pompeii, and hundreds of skeletons on Herculaneum's ancient beach and in its boat sheds. The Villa of the Papyri outside Herculaneum yielded more than 1,800 papyrus scrolls.
Systematic digging began at Herculaneum in 1738 and at Pompeii in 1748, and an inscription confirmed Pompeii's identity in 1763. Giuseppe Fiorelli, in charge from 1863, began pouring plaster into the hollows left by the victims' bodies. With two villas at Torre Annunziata, the towns were inscribed by UNESCO in 1997.
Travellers who came here
- 1787-03
He went with Tischbein and was struck by the narrow, straight streets and small windowless houses, writing that even the public buildings looked like models or dolls' houses.
- 1841-03
On 8 March he made an excursion from Naples to the excavated town.
- 1873-05
From Naples they visited the ruins and were surprised that Roman streets already had separate lanes for carriages and pedestrians. On the way back they stopped at the excavations of Herculaneum.
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