Preserved for centuries under tons of sediment, the city fell into oblivion, safe from looters and its buildings, streets and human activity frozen for posterity. Although already at the end of the 16th century, during the construction of a canal in the area, the remains of a city buried in the dry lava began to be discovered, it would not be until the middle of the following century that more exhaustive excavations would begin in order to discover the size of it. News of Pompeii was known thanks to the transcriptions of a letter where Pliny the Younger recounted the event that occurred in the autumn of AD 79, although the region had already experienced years of previous seismic activity, such as the earthquake that devastated the city 17 years earlier.

The first meticulous excavations in the mid-18th century, promoted and paid for by the kings of Naples, had the main objective of rescuing works of art to swell their private collections. Over time, the archaeological work focused on the restoration of its buildings and works of art, becoming a kind of open-air museum. Already in the 19th century, archaeologists focused on highlighting the exhibition aspect of the city, systematically proceeding with more detailed excavations and leaving all the paintings and works of art found in their place of origin. With Giuseppe Fiorelli as director of the excavations since the mid-19th century, the archaeological work divided the city into regions, neighborhoods and blocks, and introduced the plaster tracing method, consisting of pouring liquid plaster into the holes in the ground left by the victims, obtaining a precise mold of the posture and expression of the people who perished as a result of the eruption of Vesuvius.

Thanks to this constant and structured restoration of the city, and to the plaster tracing technique, today we can know that of the 10,000-15,000 inhabitants that Pompeii had, a large part of them had already left the city when the cataclysm occurred, and that those who remained were violently surprised by a dense cloud of ash that covered them, dying on the spot due to the extremely high temperatures. It is also known that prior to the eruption there was great seismic activity, with Vesuvius recording constant episodes of expulsion of pyroclastic material and fumaroles.

It was at this time that the popularity of Pompeii led it to be a mandatory destination for wealthy Europeans, attracted by the intense archaeological activity that would discover the details of a city 2,000 years ago frozen by a catastrophic event. During the 20th century, excavations would continue to discover beautiful villas, businesses at street level, temples, the Amphitheatre, the Teatro Grande, the Casa del Fauno or the Villa de los Misterios. The approximately 45 hectares discovered so far represents approximately 60% of the real extension of the city, which is almost completely visitable.

Designated a World Heritage Site by Unesco since 1997, the ruins of Pompeii are one of the biggest tourist attractions in Italy, taking tourists to take a leap in time, a total immersion in a vanished world. Nowhere else in the world is it possible to find houses, streets and public buildings preserved with an amazing level of detail.

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