History Settlement phases of PompeiiĪlthough best known for its Roman remains visible today, dating from AD 79, it was built upon a substantial city dating from much earlier times. Pompeii covered a total of 64 to 67 hectares (160 to 170 acres) and was home to 11,000 to 11,500 people, based on household counts. The mouth of the navigable Sarno River, adjacent to the city, was protected by lagoons and served early Greek and Phoenician sailors as a haven port, later developed by the Romans. The city, once by the shoreline, is today circa 700 m (2,300 ft) inland.

Three layers of sediment from large landslides lie on top of the lava, perhaps triggered by extended rainfall. The plateau fell steeply to the south and partly to the west into the sea.

Pompeii was built approximately 40 m (130 ft) above sea level on a coastal lava plateau created by earlier eruptions of Mount Vesuvius (8 km or 5 mi distant). According to Theodor Kraus, 'The root of the word Pompeii would appear to be the Oscan word for the number five, pompe, which suggests that either the community consisted of five hamlets or perhaps it was settled by a family group ( gens Pompeia).' Pompeii in Latin is a second declension masculine plural noun ( Pompeiī, -ōrum). In 2018, these led to new discoveries in some previously unexplored areas of the city. Īfter many excavations prior to 1960 that had uncovered most of the city but left it in decay, further major excavations were banned or limited to targeted, prioritised areas. Pompeii is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Italy, with approximately 2.5 million visitors annually. The numerous graffiti carved on the walls and inside rooms provide a wealth of examples of the largely lost Vulgar Latin spoken colloquially at the time, contrasting with the formal language of the classical writers. Over time, they decayed, leaving voids that archaeologists found could be used as moulds to make plaster casts of unique, and often gruesome, figures in their final moments of life. Organic remains, including wooden objects and human bodies, were interred in the ash. 11,000 in AD 79, enjoying many fine public buildings and luxurious private houses with lavish decorations, furnishings and works of art which were the main attractions for the early excavators. It was a wealthy town, with a population of ca. Largely preserved under the ash, the excavated city offers a unique snapshot of Roman life, frozen at the moment it was buried, although much of the detailed evidence of the everyday life of its inhabitants was lost in the excavations. at Boscoreale, Stabiae), was buried under 4 to 6 m (13 to 20 ft) of volcanic ash and pumice in the Eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. Pompeii, along with Herculaneum and many villas in the surrounding area (e.g. Pompeii ( / p ɒ m ˈ p eɪ( i)/, pom- PAY-(ee), Latin: ) was an ancient city located in what is now the comune of Pompei near Naples in the Campania region of Italy. Archaeological Areas of Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Torre Annunziata

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