Pompeii: An Archaeological Guide: The Essential Handbook for Visitors to Pompeii

A comprehensive guide to Pompeii, one of the world's most popular tourist destinations and archaeological obsessions – includes more than 37 new plans to buildings and sites The resonant ruins of Pompeii are perhaps the most direct route back to the living, breathing world of the ancient Romans. Today, two million visitors walk the paved streets each year, miraculously preserved and now re-emerged from the layers of volcanic ash from centuries ago. Yet for all the fame and unique importance of the site, there is a surprising lack of guides in English to reveal and explain its public spaces and private residences. This compact and user-friendly handbook, written by an expert in the field, is the perfect guide for those travelers who want a complete resource on the famous ruins of Pompeii. Illustrated throughout with maps, plans, diagrams and 125 other images – including a 16-page color plate section with mosaics and artworks – Pompeii: An Archaeological Guide offers a general introduction to the doomed city, followed by an authoritative summary and survey of the buildings, artefacts and paintings themselves. The full story of the fateful day of eruption is covered, along with extensive information on how people lived and worked in the city, including Romans and foreigners, nobility and slaves. The author’s extensive knowledge of Roman archaeology around the Bay of Naples covers all of the most popular, and lesser known, buildings of Pompeii: the forum, temples, brothels, bath-houses, bakeries, gymnasia, amphitheatre, necropolis, and other site buildings, like the House of the Faun, named after its celebrated dancing satyr. Adding to his remarkable body of work on the ancient city, Dr. Paul Wilkinson’s latest, Pompeii: An Archaeological Guide, is an indispensable reference and resource for learning about and touring one of the most famous ruins in world history. Includes French flaps for easy place-keeping, and an extensive index, glossary, and bibliography.