The oldest baths in Pompeii (2C BC) were comprised of a section for women and a section for men. To the left of the palestra are a changing room and a pool. Beyond, to the right, are the women's baths: changing rooms with lockers, a tepidarium and a ..

This is the main square where everything happened in ancient times. The large pedestrianised area was the setting for the city’s main public buildings – the great basilica where judicial and business matters were conducted, the macellum (covered ma..

This is without doubt the most attractive house in Pompeii. It has been faithfully reconstructed (the roof of the atrium has just been restored) and it has a delightful garden with statues, basins and fountains. The frescoes in the triclimium depic..

The first mystery is where in fact are the wall paintings which made the reputation of this villa? They are very hard to find in this maze of rooms. The second mystery is that of the paintings themselves; on a red Pompeiian background is a splendid f..

Concerts, ballets, oratorical meetings were the shows put on in this "small" room (800 seats nevertheless!) which was previously covered in a wooden roof and which from the early days of Roman colonisation (80 BC).

Here in the fullonicae new clothes were washed by being trampled in vats filled it with a mix of water and soda... or urine. This workshop was set up in old dwelling-house.

This large patrician house is richly decorated with paintings in the 4th Pompeian style (combining the architectural details of the 2nd with pastel scenes and landscapes of the 3rd). Notice the superb peristyle with the Doric columns covered in stucc..

One of ancient Pompeii’s main commercial thoroughfares is today one of the site’s most charming, lined by shops and houses.

Of exceptional splendour, this is an immense house with two atriums, two peristyles and a dining room for every season. The original of the faun bronze statue which adorned one of the impluviums is in the museum in Naples. The rooms were decorated wi..

This huge gateway with two portals for pedestrians flanking a larger one for vehicles leads into Via delle Tombe and to the Villa dei Misteri.

It is hard to describe the melancholy charm of this street flanked by monumental tombs and cypress trees. There are tombs with niches, small circular or square temples, altars resting on plinths, drum-shaped mausoleums, semi-circular seats (exedrae),..

This attractive but relatively small amphitheatre has seats that are part overgrown today and dates from 80 BC. This is the oldest known Roman amphitheatre. Opposite is a vast space called the Great palestra , which was used for training athletes.

Near the amphitheatre, the Porta di Nocera is one of the entrances to the excavations Pompeii (far fewer enter this way than by the Porta Marina!). According to the Roman custom, many tombs are lined up alongside the road.

This building has three main parts, baths which were open to the public, rooms intended for hire by the owner, and an inn and shops.... There's also a large garden bounded by a fine portico and embellished by a series of basins.

This is an attractive patrician house: notice its attractive marble impluvium, the triclinium decorated with frescoes, the superb decorative paintings in the 4th Pompeian style on a white background in one of the rooms. But the most attractive of a..

Here drinks and prepared foods were sold. A masonry counter looking directly onto the street formed the shop window. Jars embedded in the counter contained the things to be sold. These two thermopolia are on either of side of the street and are qui..

Built in the 5C BC, remodelled in the Hellenistic period (between 250 and 150BC) and again by the Romans in the 1C AD, the theatre could hold 5 000 spectators, protected when necessary from the sun's rays by a moveable canopy.

In front there is a majestic propyleum (with some Ionic columns) and it has some remains of a Doric temple. Not desperately spectacular it is true but don't forget, these were already archaeological remains when Vesuvius erupted. This is one of the r..

This small temple is evidence of the success of the cult of the Egyptian goddess Isis as a result of the development of contacts with the East and with Egypt. Placed on a podium in the centre of an arcaded courtyard, the temple is completed by a pur..

With the inscription Cave Canem and the mosaic dog at the threshold, this is one of the most well-known houses in Pompeii! The mosaic which gave its name to the House is now found in Naples.... next door tthe immense Casa di Pansa was conceivably s..