Tour of Herculaneum, a city destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius as well as Pompeii in 79 AD. The tour of Herculaneum is really unique.

Herculaneum was destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius as well as Pompeii in 79 AD and buried up to 25 meters of volcanic material.

It was the favorite holiday place of the ancient wealthy Roman people. When you do the tour of Herculaneum you can immediately notice that the ancient city is covered by the modern one for a large area. In fact only a quarter of the ruins has been dug out.

Tour of Herculaneum: the city

Herculaneum is considered even more elegant and refined than Pompeii, because wealthy people used to live here.

A tour of Herculaneum can start from the ancient beach. Here, the bones of roughly 300 people, trying to escape through the sea during the famous eruption, were found. Going down through a long tunnel you can reach this beach, that now is a kind of marsh. The skeletons represent for sure the most moving part of the tour.

Going ahead , after few steps there are two terraces. The first one is a religious area dedicated to Venus. The other one is a big space with the grave of Nonius Balbus, the most popular local politician.

During the tour of Herculaneum, inside the city there is the gym with the area of the swimming pool, where now there is a statue dedicated to Hercules, the founder of the city. There are important shops like the thermopolium, the bakery and one with an ancient press to iron clothes too ( the first ironing system ).

Among the houses there is the House of Neptune and Amphitrite, with the wonderful mosaic made of glass and shells. There is the House of the Wooden Partition too, with an original wooden partition of the Roman age.

A temple dedicated to Augustus is in the city too.

Tour of Herculaneum: the most interesting part

Anyway, the most interesting aspect is for sure the original organic material surviving in the city after the eruption. You can see original remains of wood. In the Archaeological Museum of Naples there is the original collection of papyrus found in Villa of Papiri in Herculaneum too.

Try the emotion to walk through a real Roman city and to feel like a person of two thousand years ago.

Don’t miss the tour of Herculaneum!