Pompeii, AD 79: A Walking Tour of the Lost City

Built around 70 BC, this is one of the earliest Roman amphitheatres made of stone, and it held around 20,000 people. Around AD 59 a deadly brawl broke out here between Pompeiians and residents of Nuceria, and the town was banned from holding such games for 10 years. Painted posters on the walls advertised gladiators with slogans and nicknames, much like modern sports posters.

Visitor guidance: Walk into the arena from the park's south-eastern end.

The temple of Apollo was the town's most important religious building, a peripteros with 48 Ionic columns on a high podium. The cult of Apollo had been in Pompeii since the 6th century BC. On 5 February 62 a severe earthquake damaged the town, and fires from fallen oil lamps added to the panic. In a niche of the wall facing the forum stood the table of official measures, protecting buyers from fraudulent shopkeepers.

Visitor guidance: Look at the north side of the Forum.

This was one of the grandest homes of Roman Pompeii, rebuilt and repaired after the AD 62 earthquake. It is named for the bronze dancing faun found on 26 October 1830. The famous Alexander Mosaic, showing the Battle of Issus in 333 BCE, was found on its floor. Five bodies were found in the house, including one woman and three boys. The originals are in the National Archaeological Museum in Naples; copies stand in the house on Via della Fortuna.

Visitor guidance: Look for the copies of the faun and the mosaic; the originals are in Naples.

The Lupanar, Latin for a wolf den, was the largest brothel in Pompeii, with 10 rooms. It stands about two blocks east of the forum near the Stabian Baths, in a busy quarter judging by the graffiti outside. Its famous frescoes above the doors can be dated to AD 72 by the impression of a coin in the plaster. Pompeii had around 20,000 people by 79.

Visitor guidance: Find it on Vico del Lupanare, near the Stabian Baths.

About 400 m northwest of the town walls, this villa had more than 60 rooms. Its Second Style frescoes in Room 5, from about 70 to 60 BC, are usually read as the initiation of a woman into the Dionysian Mysteries. Though buried under pumice and ash in the eruption of AD 79, the villa suffered only minor damage and its paintings survived largely intact. It was uncovered in 1909-1910.

Visitor guidance: Find it outside the town walls, on the road to the Herculaneum Gate.

The Garden of the Fugitives holds the plaster casts of 13 victims of the eruption of AD 79. They apparently died trying to reach the Nocera Gate, caught by the pyroclastic flow above a layer of pumice 3.5 m deep. Amedeo Maiuri uncovered them in 1961 as hollow cavities, which were then filled with plaster. The eruption lasted two days, and about 1,150 bodies have been found on site, so most of the people of Pompeii likely escaped. Pliny the Younger watched it from Misenum.

Visitor guidance: The garden is just inside the Nocera Gate, next to the Large Palaestra.