Tourism in Pompeii

Pompeii has been a popular tourist destination for 250 years. In 2008, it was attracting almost 2.6 million visitors per year, making it one of the most popular tourist sites in Italy. It is part of a larger Vesuvius National Park and was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1997. To combat problems associated with tourism, the governing body for Pompeii, the Soprintendenza Archaeological di Pompei have begun issuing new tickets that allow for tourists to also visit cities such as Herculaneum and Stabiae as well as the Villa Poppaea, to encourage visitors to see these sites and reduce pressure on Pompeii.


Pompeii is also a driving force behind the economy of the nearby town of Pompeii. Many residents are employed in the tourism and hospitality business, serving as taxi or bus drivers, waiters or hotel operators. The ruins can be easily reached on foot from the Circumvesuviana train stop called Pompei Scavi, directly at the ancient site. There are also car parks nearby.
Excavations in the site have generally ceased due to the moratorium imposed by the superintendent of the site, Professor Pietro Giovanni Guzzo. Additionally, the site is generally less accessible to tourists, with less than a third of all buildings open in the 1960s being available for public viewing today. Nevertheless, the sections of the ancient city open to the public are extensive, and tourists can spend many days exploring the whole site.

The Circumvesuviana stop at Pompeii.

The incident

A depiction of the eruption which buried Pompeii (from BBC's Pompeii: The Last Day). The depiction of the Temple of Jupiter and the Temple of Apollo are nonetheless inaccurate as these temples had been destroyed 17 years earlier.

By the 1st century, Pompeii was one of a number of towns located around the base of Mount Vesuvius. The area had a substantial population which grew prosperous from the region's renowned agricultural fertility. Many of Pompeii's neighboring communities, most famously Herculaneum, also suffered damage or destruction during the 79 eruption. By coincidence it was the day after Vulcanalia, the festival of the Roman god of fire.

The people and buildings of Pompeii were covered in up to twelve different layers of soil. Pliny the Younger provides a first-hand account of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius from his position across the Bay of Naples at Misenum, in a version which was written 25 years after the event. The experience must have been etched on his memory given the trauma of the occasion, and the loss of his uncle, Pliny the Elder, with whom he had a close relationship. His uncle lost his life while attempting to rescue stranded victims. As Admiral of the fleet, he had ordered the ships of the Imperial Navy stationed at Misenum to cross the bay to assist evacuation attempts. Volcanologists have recognised the importance of Pliny the Younger's account of the eruption by calling similar events "Plinian".
The eruption was documented by contemporary historians and is universally accepted as having started on 24 August 79, based on one version of Pliny's letter. However the archeological excavations of Pompeii suggest that it was buried 2 months later; this is supported by another version of the letter. People buried in the ash appear to be wearing warmer clothing than the light summer clothes that would be expected in August. The fresh fruit and vegetables in the shops are typical of October, and conversely the summer fruit that would have been typical of August was already being sold in dried, or conserved form. Wine fermenting jars had been sealed over, and this would have happened around the end of October. The coins found in the purse of a woman buried in the ash include a commemorative coin that should have been minted at the end of September. So far there is no definitive theory as to why there should be such an apparent discrepancy.

Founding it...

After thick layers of ash covered the two towns, they were abandoned and eventually their names and locations were forgotten. Then Herculaneum was rediscovered in 1738 by workmen working on the foundation of a summer palace for the King of Naples, Charles of Bourbon. Pompeii was rediscovered as the result of intentional excavations in 1748 by the Spanish military engineer Rocque Joaquin de Alcubierre. These towns have since been excavated to reveal many intact buildings and wall paintings. The towns were actually found in 1599 by the architect Domenico Fontana, who was digging a new course for the river Sarno, but it took more than 150 years before a serious campaign was started to unearth them. Charles of Bourbon took great interest in the findings even after becoming king of Spain because the display of antiquities reinforced the political and cultural power of Naples.
Karl Weber directed the first real excavations; he was followed in 1764 by military engineer Franscisco la Vega. Franscisco la Vega was succeeded by his brother, Pietro, in 1804. During the French occupation Pietro worked with Christophe Saliceti.

Giuseppe Fiorelli took charge of the excavations in 1860. During early excavations of the site, occasional voids in the ash layer had been found that contained human remains. It was Fiorelli who realized these were spaces left by the decomposed bodies and so devised the technique of injecting plaster into them to perfectly recreate the forms of Vesuvius's victims. What resulted were highly accurate and eerie forms of the doomed Pompeiani who failed to escape, in their last moment of life, with the expression of terror often quite clearly visible.

Some have theorized that Fontana found some of the famous erotic frescoes and, due to the strict modesty prevalent during his time, reburied them in an attempt at archaeological censorship. This view is bolstered by reports of later excavators who felt that sites they were working on had already been visited and reburied. Even many recovered household items had a sexual theme. The ubiquity of such imagery and items indicates that the sexual mores of the ancient Roman culture of the time were much more liberal than most present-day cultures, although much of what might seem to us to be erotic imagery (eg. over-sized phalluses) was in fact fertility-imagery. This clash of cultures led to an unknown number of discoveries being hidden away again. A wall fresco which depicted Priapus, the ancient god of sex and fertility, with his extremely enlarged penis, was covered with plaster, even the older reproduction below was locked away "out of prudishness" and only opened on request and only rediscovered in 1998 due to rainfall.
In 1819, when King Francis I of Naples visited the Pompeii exhibition at the National Museum with his wife and daughter, he was so embarrassed by the erotic artwork that he decided to have it locked away in a secret cabinet, accessible only to "people of mature age and respected morals". Re-opened, closed, re-opened again and then closed again for nearly 100 years, it was briefly made accessible again at the end of the 1960s (the time of the sexual revolution) and was finally re-opened for viewing in 2000. Minors are still only allowed entry to the once secret cabinet in the presence of a guardian or with written permission.
Evidently due to its immorality, prior to or shortly after the destruction of Pompeii, one graffitist had scribbled "Sodom and Gomorrah" onto a wall near the cities central crossroads. Many Christians have since invoked the destruction of Pompeii in warning of divine judgment against rampant immorality.

A large number of artifacts come from Pompeii are preserved in the Naples National Archaeological Museum.

Cast of a dog that archaeologists believe was chained outside the House of Vesonius Primus, a Pompeiian fuller

Our Opinion

In our opinion, Pompeii city has been preserved very well. All the objects buried beneath Pompeii were remarkably well-preserved for almost two thousand years. The site had a wealth of sources and evidence for analysis, giving remarkable detail into the lives of the Pompeiians.


Weathering, erosion, light exposure, water damage, poor methods of excavation and reconstruction, introduced plants and animals, tourism, vandalism and theft have all damaged the site in some way. Two-thirds of the city has been excavated, but the remnants of the city are rapidly deteriorating. Today, funding is mostly directed into conservation of the site; however, due to the expanse of Pompeii and the scale of the problems, this is inadequate in halting the slow decay of the materials.

How to preserve it?

The bodies were covered in ash and as they degraded they left body shaped holes. So the first people to investigate the sites pour plaster of paris into the holes and when it hardened, they chipped around the plaster and had complete replicas of the body of the person or people who had died there. They have kept the bones intact of the bodies that they have discovered. They also have preserved the scrolls that they have found that were burned. At the present time, we cannot open these scrolls without damaging them but we are preserving them in the hope that some day we will find a way to open them and be able to read them. The other arefacts like mosaics and jugs and stuff like that are are uncovered and cleaned professionally and are being left at the sites.

Myths and Legends

The dogs of ancient Pompeii were pets and guard dogs, as dogs are now. They were also protected by law from ill-treatment, as dogs are now. It's supposed that those dogs who were unchained, sensing the geological unrest, fled the city in advance of the eruption. Those who were chained perished along with their owners.
"For days before the eruption, there were warning signs. The ground shook, wells and springs dried up and no birds sang. But the citizens of Pompeii just went about their business - only the dogs took heed. With their acute senses, they could feel the tremors long before the humans."
"They walked for a day and a night without rest into the hot summer breeze, keeping Vesuvius downwind. On the second day, tired and thirsty, they were at the foot of a range of low hills. The sun was high in the sky. The wind had died down and all erupted from the top of Mount Vesuvius, rising a hundred thousand feet into the air."
The dogs who live there now are strays - dusty, scruffy, mutts, always on the lookout was quiet. Suddenly, the eerie silence was shattered by a tremendous explosion. A gigantic column of smoke for a handout in the form of a sandwich or a slice of pizza - but they all have a special dignity. They too are protected in a way unusual for stray dogs - the guides to the ruins of Pompeii care for them by pooling money to pay for food.
Few people who have ever toured Pompeii have failed to be enchanted by the dogs. One in particular took the authors' attention as they sat in a restaurant after touring the ruins. He was black, with a white patch on his chest and he had a great begging act. He approached each table with a sad expression and wagged his tail very slowly. Some diners ignored him, some gave him a tidbit from their lunch for which his gratitude was visible. Once in a while a waiter would chase him off. He'd wait patiently around a corner until the waiter was out of sight, then move on to a new table with the same brilliantly calculated performance.
The following notes are attached to various tourists' web sites:
CAVE CANEM - many houses have such mosaics. There must have been many dogs in ancient Pompeii.
Dogs remain very much a part of this city. They are strays or might have been abandoned and seem to rely on tourists for handouts. Most of the ones we encountered were sleeping in the shade. A few follow people around in the hope that they will receive food. One was waiting outside a snack shop for anyone gullible enough to let his guard down and hold a snack too low to the ground.
My impression of the dogs on each of the visits I've made to Pompeii is that they're happy, friendly and generally healthy and certainly don't look undernourished. Generous tourists share sandwiches with them.
I never saw any dog get upset at a person. They are now a part of the standard Pompeii visit.

Streets of Pompeii...

Today when you walk across the streets of Pompeii, you can witness the traces of old wagon wheels that used to roll over the big basalt stones on the streets. Nearly every citizen of Pompeii was able to read and write. This is made visible by many engravings on the walls, which are full of slogans, banners and other graffitis. Many houses remained surprisingly well preserved. The richly decorated villas of the city were mostly located at the seaside before the eruption. The residences were designed after prototypes of Greek architecture. Guests of these houses were often welcomed into an atrium from which the enclosed rooms led off. The atrium was surrounded by many stairs and a squared courtyard which was carried by four coloumns. The large entrances of other houses, called vestibules, were decorated with different religious murals and ornaments in order to protect its inhabitants. Another part of the villas was the peristyle. It was an open colonnade in which the gardens of the houses were situated. From the colonnade of the peristyle you could reach the special summer dining room. The most famous place of the once wealthy city of Pompeii was the forum. This was the main square of the city. It was the location of the administration buildings, the thermal springs, which were separate for men and women, and the market halls. On its northern side was the Capitolinic Temple, in the east the Macellum and the Eumachia (market halls for food and clothes) with the Temple of Vespasian. In the southeast you can find the Comitium (the court) and on the western side is the location of the Basilika.The water channel system of the city worked extremly well.