"Many disasters have occurred in the world, but few have also provided so much delight for posterity." There probably are no better words to describe Pompeii than Goethe’s during one of his trips to Italy – the area of Pompeii encompasses 440,000 square meters that include the archaeological excavations of the ancient Roman city submerged by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, frozen in time by the sudden rain of ash and lava rock that preserved it for centuries.
In 1997 UNESCO declared Pompeii a World Heritage Site, on account of the fact that the extraordinary findings in the cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum and neighbouring cities buried by the eruption provide a complete and vivid picture of society and daily life that have been preserved nearly intact for two millennia.
