Skip the line Pompeii Guided Tour

The ruins of Pompeii are a vast archaeological site in the southern Campania region, near the coast of the Gulf of Naples. Once a thriving and sophisticated Roman city, Pompeii was buried under meters of ash and pumice after the catastrophic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. The preserved site features remain of excavated streets and houses that visitors can freely explore.

The Civil Forum represents the center of the daily life of the city, all the main public buildings for the administration of the city and justice, for the management of business, for commercial activities, such as markets, overlook it, in addition to the main places of city worship.

The Temple of Jupiter dominates the northern side of the Forum, and Vesuvius rises spectacularly behind it. With the deduction of the colony (80 BC) the temple was the subject of a radical renovation and became a real Capitolium, with the three cult statues of Jupiter, Juno and Minerva, which imitated those of the Capitolium in Rome, placed on a high base, so as to make them visible to those passing through the Forum square.

The Macellum consists of a tuff of Quadri porticus with a hall for worship in an elevated position on the eastern side, in line with the entrance. The Macellum of Pompeii was nothing more than the city market where people could buy food. Located north-east of the Forum, the complex had to remain out of the way from the square so as not to create too much crowding, given the high number of people who certainly frequented it.

The walls of the porticoes were decorated with scenes from daily life, such as selling fish and poultry, and mythological subjects.

Via dell'Abbondanza is one of the main streets of the ancient city of Pompeii, in Campania, which connects the Forum with the Amphitheatre.

The Stabian Baths were built at different times. The initial phase of construction dates back to the 4th BC. (the gym with a trapezoid base). The main entrance by Via dell'Abbondanza leads to a large courtyard. The pool is found to the left, whereas a colonnade is found to the right, which leads to the men's quarters, which are split into the apodyterium (dressing room), with the frigidarium (for cold baths), which leads to the tepidarium (for medium temperature baths) and then to the caldarium (for hot baths).The heating was guaranteed by a piping system in the walls and double floors that circulated the hot air coming from the furnaces and from mobile braziers. The women's quarters, close to the men's quarters, were split the same way into the apodyterium, tepidarium and caldarium. However, all were smaller and had no rich decorations as the men's quarters.)

The brothel of Pompeii, with its erotic paintings, is one of the best-known buildings of the excavations and had the function of a brothel. The prostitutes in the brothel were mostly Greek and Oriental slaves. The building has two floors. The homes of the owner and the slaves are at the top, and there are five rooms at the bottom, all fitted with a built-in bed. The brothel is named from Lupa, a Latin word meaning 'prostitute'.

The Large Theatre was built around the middle of the 2nd century BC and significantly restored according the Roman style. In the theatre they represented comedies and tragedies of Greek Roman tradition. The theatre was the first large public building completely freed from the deposits of the eruption.