Archaeological Areas of Pompei, Herculaneum and Torre Annunziata

On 24 August AD 79 Vesuvius buried a whole slice of Roman life in ash and pyroclastic mud, freezing streets, shops, frescoes and even loaves of bread in mid-moment. Pompeii preserves a bustling commercial city; Herculaneum, smaller and deeper-buried, kept upper storeys and carbonised wood; the villa at Oplontis shows seaside luxury. Dug progressively since the mid-1700s and inscribed by UNESCO in 1997, the three sites form the world's most vivid World Heritage window on antiquity.